Verizon making progress resolving network issue snarling cellphone service

Written by: David Shepardson and Harshita Mary Varghese

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Verizon Communications said late on Wednesday it was making progress restoring cellphone service and plans to offer credits to affected consumers for the hours-long outage that disrupted calls, texting and internet use for hundreds of thousands of customers.

“We disappointed many of our customers today, and for that we are truly sorry,” Verizon said. “Our crews will continue to work throughout the night until service is restored for all affected customers.”

The outage led many major cities to advise residents to use other operators to call emergency services.

Because the outage lasted more than eight hours, the operator said it was still working to resolve the issue but saw no signs of a cyberattack.

The company did not disclose the extent of the outage. But Downdetector, which collects data on service outages, said more than 180,000 reports were submitted at the peak. Downdetector said it received 2.2 million reports of Verizon service outages in the past 24 hours.

“Our teams are fully deployed and focused on the problem,” Verizon said. “We are… determined to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr told Reuters after the congressional hearing that the agency “will review the issue and take appropriate action.” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, said she would ask the agency to investigate.

It told New York City residents that the outage could affect some users trying to call 911 for emergency assistance. “Call using a device from another carrier or landline, or go to the police/fire station to report emergencies,” City X said. The District of Columbia issued a similar warning.

Some ⁠Verizon customers posted frantic messages on social media asking for updates on service restoration.

Verizon is facing a nationwide wireless outage in late 2024, affecting more than 100,000 users at its peak. The outage came to the attention of the FCC after many services were affected and iPhone users were left in “SOS” mode.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Sahal Muhammad, Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)