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A widespread outage disrupted Verizon’s mobile and data services across the United States on Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of customers unable to make calls or access cellular data, The New York Times reported. According to the report, Verizon said it was working to restore services after more than 170,000 users flagged problems on Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions. The tracker showed the outage began just after noon. Many affected users said their phones displayed “SOS” in the status bar where the network signal normally appears.The Associated Press reported that outage complaints peaked in the early afternoon and remained elevated into the evening, with around 33,000 reports still logged as of 8 p.m. ET. Verizon did not specify the cause of the disruption but said engineering teams had been deployed to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible.”Verizon also acknowledged the outage in posts on X. The company said, “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.” In a later update, Verizon said its “team is on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers. We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible.”Impacted users across the country reported “SOS” mode or no-signal messages on their devices. In New York, alerts warned residents that the outage could disrupt 911 calls, urging them to use landlines, devices from other carriers, or visit police or fire stations in person in case of emergencies, the Associated Press reported.Major hubs affected included Washington D.C., Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Atlanta, though customers nationwide reported disruptions.
