Verizon said it's aware of the outages, which appear to be affecting much of the country, and is working to resolve the issue.
A Verizon retail location is shown in Willow Grove, Pa., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
WASHINGTON — Verizon confirmed an outage on its mobile service Wednesday and said it's working to resolve the issue.
Downdetector, which tracks outages, reported a spike nationwide in outages after noon ET Wednesday, with more than 150,000 reports from across the country. Locations with reported outages include New York City, Chicago and Richmond, Va.
On the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Verizon said they are aware of outages impacting their customers and are working to resolve the issue.
Customers can check their network status here.
In a statement, Verizon confirmed it was "aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience."
In Washington D.C., the official alert system sent out a notice about the outage impacting users' ability to call 911: "OUC is aware of a nationwide Verizon Wireless outage that may be affecting some users to connect with 911. If you have an emergency and can not connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police district or fire station to report the emergency."
Why is my phone in SOS mode? What is SOS mode?
If you have an iPhone, SOS mode is simply a way for your phone to tell you that you don't have a proper cellular connection, meaning you're only able to call or text emergency services through the cellular network.
iPhone 14 or newer models also have satellite SOS capability, so you're able to call 911 even when outside of any cellular service range, unless you're some place where signal can't get out at all.
Android phones will also let you call 911 without service, although it's not called SOS mode.
The SOS icon will appear in the top right corner of an iPhone's screen when service is unavailable, where your cellular connection bars usually display
On an iPhone 13 or earlier, if you go out of range for any cellular service, the icon will swap to "No service" until you're back within range.
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