One of the most popular Verizon outages has paralyzed the work of millions of customers in the United States, depriving users of the possibility to make a call, send a text or use the Internet. 

The shutoff started in the early morning of Thursday, October 9, at about 12:07 a.m., and is still going on in the afternoon. A lot of users have complained that their phones were showing SOS mode, which means that the phone cannot connect to the Verizon network.

The hardest hit is New Jersey, New York City, New York State, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Georgia. Verizon has affirmed that it has a known problem that affects its wireless, voice, data and Fios internet services. 

The firm is attempting to reestablish connections, but it has cautioned that not all areas will have been reinstated with service until early Friday morning.  

Customers Left Without Service

Customers have been frustrated with social media and websites that track outages, like Downdetector, where their phones have stopped working without any warning in the middle of the night. A lot of users reported that they could not make an emergency call, text, or access mobile data. Some others said that there were frequent disconnections during the calls or that they did not connect at all.

It has also been a serious issue among the people who use the Verizon Fios internet solution at home. Users in some of the states on the East Coast complain that their Wi-Fi was affected towards the end of Wednesday and has been unstable since then until Thursday. Remote workers, households and businesses that rely on the use of the Internet have therefore been affected especially.  

Verizon Attests to the Issue

Verizon accepted the outage at the beginning of Thursday, in response to the fact that the company has been unable to provide service to its customers in multiple states. 

The company made an announcement that it was experiencing limited data, voice, text, and wireless home internet in some regions of New Jersey and New York.

Though Verizon has not revealed the exact cause of the disruption, the company reported that its teams are working 24/7 to bring all services back online. 

On Friday, October 10, some customers heard that their restoration time in North Jersey was estimated at 1:11 a.m.ET. Verizon, however, observed that the restoration time can be different based on the location and the level of damage to the network infrastructure.  

image 4Checking the outage map of Verizon

To confirm the fact that Verizon is down in their location, the customers can visit the official site of Verizon site and use the Check Network Status tool. Using an address / ZIP code, users can see information about service disruptions, estimated repair time, and the expected complete restoration of service.

The outage map has identified the worst problems in the East Coast, especially in the New York City metropolitan region and in New Jersey. Other large groups of outages have also emerged in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and some parts of Georgia.  

Fios Internet Also Impacted  

It is not only the Verizon mobile network that is disrupted. Verizon Fios, the home internet and television service offered by the company, has been reported to have some problems with many users. 

Connectivity issues with Fios were reported to have started towards the end of Wednesday, October 8 and escalated during the night. Thousands of homes could have no access to the Internet or online streaming services by Thursday morning.

It has been a major inconvenience to those in their work at home or in online classes. Some users claimed to have been compelled to use mobile hotspots or Wi-Fi networks that were in public to stay connected. Verizon has assured that Fios problems fall under the same network outage and will be reinstated with the wireless services.  

Customer Actions During the Outage

As Verizon continues to fix the problem, there are a number of ways that customers can stay connected in the meantime. The majority of Verizon smartphones have Wi-Fi Calling, which enables them to make calls and texts through a Wi-Fi network rather than a cellular network.

In order to facilitate the same, a user can go to the settings of their phone and look up Wi-Fi Calling. When switched on, calls and texts may be sent through a home or public Wi-Fi connection, and thus, this helps in maintaining communication during such significant breakdowns.

WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, or Signal are also messaging apps that Verizon suggests using and do not use cellular networks but instead an internet connection.  

Customer Service and Notifications

Since the outage took place, Verizon has received hundreds of calls on its customer service line. Verizon tech support is also accessible to customers at 800-922-0204 8 a.m.-12 a.m., daily. Due to the inability to reach an agent, Verizon has a 24/7 chatbot on its site.

To keep up with the latest events, users are able to log in to their My Verizon account and control service alerts in the tab named Communication Preferences. Verizon has recommended that its customers activate such alerts so as to get alerts on restoration progress and network updates.  

image 3Frustration among the citizens comes online

On X then Twitter and Reddit, users have been complaining about the downtime. It has been a source of many complaints that people cannot reach relatives or use the necessary online services. Others have also raised their safety issues, citing that they were not able to make emergency calls as they were caught up in the SOS mode.

Small business owners and gig workers who are dependent on Verizon data have also reported on the disruption, which implies that it has cost them valuable work hours. Customers in New Jersey have complained that there were long queues of people in Verizon stores in their locality who were seeking answers.

Will the Will Service be Fully Restored?  

Although Verizon has not published an official estimate of the time of nationwide restoration, reports in different areas indicate that things are underway. In some sections of New York and New Jersey, customers were reporting some partial restoration by Thursday afternoon. 

Nevertheless, the recovery cannot be complete till early Friday morning in the zones where the network damage is more severe.  

The company is also communicating with the affected customers on its social and web platforms. By Thursday evening, Verizon was confident that the majority of its services would be available by the end of business on Friday.  

Concluding Opinions  

The outage of Verizon that happened on October 9-10, 2025, is one of the biggest service failures that the company has had in recent months. Having millions of people who use Verizon either through mobile or home, the outage has made it evident that the lives of many people nowadays depend on efficient communication systems.  

Currently, customers are recommended to use Wi-Fi calling, stay informed with the help of the official outage tracker of Verizon, and wait until the field crews can restore the system. Verizon has already given an apology for the inconvenience and promised its technicians that they are working around the clock to get normal service restored as soon as possible.  

Users in the affected states are yet to receive a resolution till then, as they wait to see displays with SOS mode listed, screens refreshing, and hope that they will eventually see the network bars they are used to.