AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File
FILE – A man uses a cell phone in New Orleans on Aug. 11, 2019.
Verizon users nationwide are facing a service outage on the telecommunications company’s cellular network.
Though the extent of Wednesday’s outage was not immediately clear, Verizon confirmed its engineers were aware and “working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”
Users in Houston were affected by the outage. Users reported seeing “SOS” at the top of their phones rather than a cellular network signal.
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Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today’s service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) January 14, 2026
“Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue,” Verizon said in a Wednesday afternoon post on X. “We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.”
Outage tracker Downdetector showed that Verizon customers began to report issues with their service around 11 a.m. Reports appeared to peak at more than 175,000 by 11:30 a.m. — but still remained elevated later in the afternoon, sitting at nearly 68,000 as of 1:30 p.m.
In cities like New York, warnings were sent out noting that the outage may disrupt 911 calls — urging residents try landlines or a device from another carrier, if available, in case of an emergency, or visit local police or fire stations in person.
When cellular outages happen, some phone companies also urge consumers to try to connect to Wi-Fi and use internet calling. If Wi-Fi is still unavailable, there can be a limited number of other options — including sending messages via satellite on newer iPhones.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.