Verizon outages are affecting tens of thousands of customers.
The telecommunications company said it was aware of the problem but did not give further details.
“Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today’s service interruptions,” the company told Business Insider in a statement. “Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.”
Downdetector, which provides real-time updates on various services and websites, showed that Verizon customers began reporting issues on Wednesday at about 12 p.m. Customer outage reports reached almost 180,000 by 12:39 p.m.
The majority of reports made to Downdetector were coming from cities along the eastern seaboard, though there were also widespread outages reported in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.
Some X users shared memes during the service outage.
Additionally, two major cities issued alerts as the outages dragged on.
In an X post, New York City’s Emergency Management office told residents it is “working closely with our partners at OTI & various utility providers to assess any potential effects on city agencies & essential services.”
“We are also gathering information and updates from the affected network providers. The cause and scope of the outage are still being investigated,” the post said.
Washington, D.C.’s public safety office said the outages were “nationwide.”
“OUC is aware of a nationwide Verizon outage affecting some users trying to reach 911,” the agency said in a post on X. “If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police or fire station to report the emergency.”
T-Mobile also responded to the outage on X, writing that its network is operating normally.
“However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time,” the post said.
Correction: January 14, 2026 — An earlier version of this story misstated the day of the outage. It was Wednesday, January 14.
