Some Verizon customers across the country woke up to find their phones showing “SOS mode” instead of a signal early Thursday morning.
Verizon outage hit overnight, but service came back fast
The disruption hit around 1 a.m. ET, leaving hundreds of users without access to calls, texts, or data. By early morning, though, service seemed to be mostly back to normal.
According to Downdetector, which tracks service issues across networks, the outage was widespread – with reports coming in from New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix, and Atlanta.
This map shows where the most reports came from. | Image credit – Downdetector
Phone keeps ending calls and when I try to call back, it says it couldn't connect.
– User Julie Spears, October 2025
In knoxville. Phone service and mobile internet constantly going out.
– User Daniel, October 2025
Downdetector’s data shows reports skyrocketed right around midnight ET, peaking at 1,244 complaints, before quickly dropping off as the network came back online.
Most users – around 51% – reported issues with their phones, while another 32% said their 5G home internet was affected. Whatever caused it, Verizon seems to have fixed the problem fast, as everything looks stable now.
More than half of the reports were for lost phone connection. | Image credit – Downdetector
The biggest carrier in the US felt the ripple
As the largest mobile and broadband provider in the US, Verizon serves over 146 million wireless connections. So, when something like this happens, it can impact both homes and businesses across the country.
Luckily, because the outage happened overnight, the effect was likely minimal. And when you think about it, a few hundred reports out of millions of users isn’t exactly catastrophic.
These types of issues can stem from a lot of things – software bugs, bad updates, or mistakes in complex network configurations. Sometimes, physical damage like fiber cuts from construction, power outages, or even severe weather can also bring service down. Cyberattacks are rare but not impossible, too.
Whatever the cause this time, it’s clear Verizon managed to get things under control quickly – and for now, everything’s running smoothly again.
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We've reached out to Verizon for a comment and will update the story when we have a response.
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