American telecommunications company
Verizon
experienced significant outages on Monday, affecting thousands of users, particularly in cities like
Chicago
and
Indianapolis
. Many iPhone users reported that their devices were stuck in "SOS" mode.
According to
Downdetector
.com, the problems began around 9.30am ET, leading to over 66,000
outage
reports by 12.28pm ET, affecting areas including Minneapolis, Phoenix, Omaha, and Denver, according to Reuters News Agency.
Verizon Communications acknowledged the issue, saying, "Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue." Many users took to social media platform X to express frustration, sharing that their phones displayed "SOS," indicating a lack of connection to the cellular network while still allowing emergency calls via other carriers.
In contrast, AT&T reported only 1,111 incident reports on the same outage tracker, but the carrier claimed it was not facing a nationwide issue. AT&T suggested that Downdetector’s data reflected challenges customers were having connecting with users on another network.
The news of the Verizon outage follows the company's recent announcement of a $3.3 billion deal to lease, operate, and manage 6,339
mobile towers
across the US with infrastructure firm Vertical Bridge. In February, AT&T faced its own nationwide outage, affecting more than 70,000 customers and prompting an investigation by the
Federal Communications Commission
.
English (US) ·