Verizon customers across major U.S. cities lost voice and text service for more than 10 hours Wednesday after an unspecified network failure, prompting the carrier to pledge automatic bill credits and a formal apology.
At a Glance
- More than 180,000 outage reports flooded DownDetector by 11:40 a.m. CT.
- Service dropped in cities including Chicago, leaving phones stuck in “SOS mode.”
- Verizon restored connections around 10:20 p.m. ET and promised account credits.
- The company has not disclosed what triggered the disruption.
Why it matters: A single “issue” paralyzed communications for millions, exposing how fragile everyday connectivity can be when a major carrier fails.
Timeline of the Outage
According to DownDetector, complaints spiked at 11 a.m. CT and peaked 40 minutes later. Customers quickly found they could neither place calls nor send texts; devices displayed only emergency service.
Verizon’s first public acknowledgment came around noon, when the carrier posted on X that teams were investigating. Updates followed every few hours:
- 3 p.m. CT: “We are working non-stop and making progress.”
- 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET: “Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry.”
- 9:20 p.m. CT/10:20 p.m. ET: Service officially restored.
Verizon urged anyone still seeing problems to restart their device and said credits would arrive automatically.
Cities Hit Hardest
DownDetector heat maps showed dense clusters of failure reports in:
- Chicago
- Indianapolis
- Milwaukee
- Detroit
- Minneapolis
Social-media posts from those areas described 911-only signal bars, missed work calls, and stranded ride-share drivers unable to contact passengers.
Company Response
Verizon framed the event as an isolated “issue” rather than a cyber-attack. Officials repeatedly declined to name a root cause, citing only “network elements” that required repair.
In a final X thread the carrier stated:
> “The outage has been resolved. If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network. For those affected, we will provide account credits. Details will be shared directly with customers. We sincerely apologize for the disruption.”
No estimate for the credit amount or timeline for distribution has been released.
What Happens Next
Verizon says credits will appear on January bills without customers needing to file claims. The carrier has not announced plans to publish a technical post-mortem, leaving businesses and regulators in the dark about safeguards against a repeat event.
Jordan M. Lewis reported for News Of Philadelphia.
