Verizon Wireless customers across the United States experienced widespread service disruptions Wednesday morning after a major network outage left many users unable to make calls, send text messages or access mobile data.
The outage began shortly after 9 a.m. EST and escalated rapidly. Outage-tracking website Downdetector recorded more than 113,000 reports at its peak as customers from across the country reported their phones entering SOS mode or losing service entirely.
Reports of signal loss and failed connections came from major metropolitan areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C., according to Downdetector data.
Verizon acknowledged the issue in a statement, saying it was aware of service disruptions affecting some customers and that its engineers were working to restore service.