Montgomery County Verizon Customers Impacted By Widespread Outage

ROCKVILLE, MD — Verizon reportedly experienced a network outage Wednesday morning, impacting customers in Montgomery County and elsewhere around the country.

The widespread service disruptions appeared to affect parts of the Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast, according to tracking website DownDetector.com, Montgomery County Verizon customers reported issues in the Rockville, Aspen Hill, Gaithersburg, Olney, and North Potomac areas.

On DownDetector.com, users said they were unable to make outgoing calls or connect to the internet.

At 7:31 a.m., Frederick Police tweeted that Verizon wireless customers also had trouble calling the non-emergency number for the police. Customers, however, could still make calls to 911.

Verizon Wireless subscribers are unable to connect to certain LANDLINE phone numbers, including the FPD non-emergency.
**This is NOT affecting 9-1-1 **
If you need to contact FPD non-emergency, please use a landline phone or a mobile phone from a different carrier. (1/2)
— Frederick Police (@Fred_MD_Police) December 18, 2019

Reports of widespread service disruptions spiked at 7:40 a.m.

"Verizon needs to fix this! I have a medically fragile child who goes to school and I need my phone working so that if anything happens, I know about it," Jennifer Blanton, a Verizon user, posted on DownDetector.com.

The telecommunications giant told The New York Times that the widespread service disruptions were fixed.

"Overnight some wireless customers experienced a dialing error when placing calls from their wireless phone to a long-distance landline number," Chris McCann, a Verizon spokesman, said in a statement. "This issue was resolved at 6:30 a.m. ET. We apologize for any inconvenience."