The widespread Verizon outage left hundreds of thousands of people without cell, text or data service for more than 10 hours
A Verizon outage that left more than 200,000 customers nationwide including in Chicago in SOS mode for hours Monday and caused hundreds of complaints on social media was resolved by the carrier, according to statement.
But what exactly caused the widespread outage?
"Verizon engineers have fully restored today's network disruption that impacted some customers," the cell company said in a statement Monday afternoon. Service has returned to normal levels. If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your patience."
The statement came more than six hours after the widespread outage began. Data and maps from Down Detector showed Verizon outage reports started around 7:30 a.m. Monday, with reports spiking to more than 200,000 DownDetector shows that reports topped 100,000 shortly after 10 a.m. CT.
In the Chicago area, more than 4,000 customers reported to be without service at the height of the outage, Down Detector data showed. Other "most reported" outage locations were Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Omaha, Cincinnati, Denver, Seattle and Columbus.
Approximately three hours after Downdetector received its first outage reports, Verizon posted a message to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the cell company was aware of an "issue impacting service for some customers."
"Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue," the message said. Verizon did not provide how many people were impacted by the disruption.
Prior to the message, dozens of social media comments popped up from users saying they were experiencing service disruptions, with Downdetector showing Chicago among the "most reported" outage locations.
Multiple users reported seeing the words SOS on their phone, with cellular, data and text service unavailable. In replies to comments, Verizon recommended users set up WiFi calling as an alternative, but the issue persisted.
Around 1:30 p.m., The Federal Communications Commission, the nationwide agency that regulates interstate and international communications, posted that it was aware of the outage.
"We are working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions," the FCC's message said.
Four hours later Verizon posted an update, saying that "engineers were making progress" and referred to the outage as a "network issue."
"We continue to work about the clock to fully resolve this," the post went on to say.
At 6:18 p.m., more than 10 hours after the first outages were reported on Downdetector, Verizon posted the network had been "fully restored."
"Verizon engineers have fully restored today's network disruption that impacted some customers," Verizon's statement said. "Service has returned to normal levels."
The carrier went on to instruct users to restart their device if issues remained.
"We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience," the message concluded.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, no further statements from Verizon or the FCC were released.
Verizon described the widespread outage in its statements only as a "network issue." It did not further identify the cause of the disruption.
Verizon did not provide any additional statements to NBC Chicago.