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Published on November 12, 2024
Verizon Service Restored After Widespread Outages Affect Thousands on East Coast and BeyondSource: Unsplash/Marques Thomas

Thousands of Verizon customers along the East Coast experienced an unexpected interruption to their service yesterday, with many reporting complete internet and landline disruptions. According to ABC7 New York, the service outage, which also affected Verizon's recently rolled-out 5G home internet, left users without connection for at least two hours.

Anecdotal reports indicate the disruption was not limited by geography, stretching from New York to Los Angeles. Customers who found their mobile phones limited to SOS mode expressed their dissatisfaction across social media platforms. One customer wrote, "It's been over two hours and we don't even know why this is happening. We all pay a pretty penny for our Verizon bill, this time should be compensated until the issue is fully resolved," reflecting their reliance on the network and urging Verizon for answers and compensation. This sentiment was captured by CBS MoneyWatch as the outage peaked with over 100,000 outage reports logged by DownDetector.

In addressing the nationwide connectivity crisis, a Verizon spokesperson assured customers that their engineers were promptly addressing the issue. "Verizon engineers are making progress on our network issue, and service has started to be restored," the spokesperson said in a later statement obtained by CBS MoneyWatch.

Less understood, however, is the SOS mode many were plunged into. Typically reserved for emergency call functionality, the feature allows mobile phones to connect with other carriers for 911 calls. Given that this mode confines devices to the bare essential of connectivity, it became a worrisome predicament for those depending on their mobiles for tasks requiring 2-factor authentication, often necessary for secure account access. "Also how can I log into my Verizon account if I can't verify who I am by getting a text because of an outage?" one user queried on a social media platform, underscoring the dilemma of digital security during telecom outages, as detailed by CBS MoneyWatch.

The restoration of services yesterday evening brought some relief, but also a litany of customer grievances and vows of carrier-switching. "As soon as this problem is fixed I'm canceling my service," declared one customer in response to Verizon's update on social media, as reported by CBS MoneyWatch. The collective frustration was further fueled by the absence of a detailed explanation for the service failure. Both iPhone and Android users were impacted, as confirmed by reporting from tech site Bleeping Computer, amplifying the disruption's breadth across device ecosystems.