Updated: 'Catastrophic' Cell Service Outage Impacts Millions, CA Hit Hard

Update: Verizon has announced the outage is resolved. The company issued the following statement in a social media post late Wednesday:

"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."

• Read more about Verizon's response and how much money impacted customers can expect

Earlier: Verizon Wireless is responding to a major disruption in service, with customers nationwide and in Southern California reporting that they're unable to make phone calls or use the internet Wednesday.

Downdetector, which tracks telecommunications outages, said it has received over a million reports from Verizon customers across the U.S. The highest concentrations of reports are in New York City, Atlanta and other East Coast cities. On the West Coast, outages have been reported in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Portland.

The website described the outage as "a catastrophic break in standard cellular connectivity," Mashable reported. Many users' phones are displaying "SOS" in the service indicator, while others who may not be directly impacted are having trouble making calls to those without service.

Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today's service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) January 14, 2026

Verizon said late Wednesday morning that it has deployed engineering teams to address the outage and is working to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

At around 1 p.m., the company posted another update on social media, writing that its team was continuing to work to fix the problem.

Officials in Washington, D.C. addressed the outage in an emergency notification to residents, referring to the problem as a "nationwide" one.

Verizon has not indicated exactly how widespread the issue is. In Los Angeles, a Patch reporter was able to make calls earlier Wednesday afternoon before being stymied by an "SOS" indicator two hours later.

Customers of AT&T and T-Mobile, the two other largest cellphone providers in the country, have also reported outages on Downdetector.

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But T-Mobile issued a statement saying its network is operating normally and that its customers may be experiencing issues connecting with Verizon customers due to the outage.

AT&T also said its network was operating normally, according to NBC News.