Verizon customers in Chicago and beyond found themselves without service early Thursday evening, as widespread outages hit the telecommunications network. According to NBC Chicago, reports of outages began to spike around 5:30 p.m., with Downdetector showing a peak of over 1,500 outage reports.
The issues started cropping up during the latter part of the 4 p.m. hour, with nearly a thousand out of service calls still being reported after 6:30 p.m. Service seemed to bounce back by 9:30 p.m., indicating a temporary disruption for users. Verizon took to Twitter to respond to the flurry of complaints from affected customers, therefore, acknowledging the service interruption.
While service was restored for many by the evening, the cause of the outage remained unknown. In a statement sent to FOX TV Stations, Verizon conveyed awareness of the issue and that their engineers were on the job. Verizon said they are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers and thei engineers are working to identify and solve the problem.
Customers across the Midwest and Western states found themselves in a similar predicament. The exact scope of the outages beyond the Chicago area wasn't immediately clear, however, a Verizon spokesperson confirmed that the interruptions were not localized. While services have largely resumed, the patience of customers might be tested if an explanation for the outage doesn't come to light soon.
