Verizon has announced that it has successfully rectified a significant network disruption that affected thousands of customers across the United States on Monday. This announcement comes just hours after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revealed its intention to investigate the outage.
According to Downdetector, a platform that monitors technology outages, over 100,000 reports of service interruptions were logged earlier in the day. By 8 p.m. Eastern Time, this number dwindled to approximately 2,500.
In a statement on X, Verizon indicated that their engineers had addressed the disruption, restoring service to what they termed “normal levels.” The message further advised users experiencing ongoing issues to restart their devices, emphasizing, “We understand the reliance on Verizon and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
FCC Investigates Outage Causes
Prior to the resolution announcement, Verizon acknowledged its awareness of the service issues affecting its customers. Spokesperson Ilya Hemlin communicated to USA TODAY that engineers were “working diligently to resolve the problem.”
The FCC is currently engaged in an investigation to uncover the cause and magnitude of the disruptions. Officials from T-Mobile and AT&T stated that their networks were functioning normally, with CNET reporting that any issues experienced by their users might have stemmed from attempting to connect with Verizon users during the outage.
Cities notably affected included Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix, Omaha, and Washington D.C., which reported the highest volumes of service-related issues, as per Downdetector’s data. Frustrated users expressed their concerns on social media, with one individual posting, “Is @Verizon down for anyone else right now? My service disappeared at 10 a.m., and no amount of restarting or switching in and out of airplane mode is helping with the signal.”
In February, competitor AT&T faced its own nationwide wireless outages that persisted for over 12 hours, affecting more than 70,000 customers. The FCC is also investigating the AT&T incident, which blocked over 92 million voice calls and hindered more than 25,000 attempts to dial 911.
Interestingly, news of the Verizon outage emerged shortly after the company announced a significant deal with infrastructure firm Vertical Bridge. This agreement grants Vertical Bridge the rights to lease, operate, and manage 6,339 mobile towers across the United States for a staggering $3.3 billion.