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![A picture of a bald man wearing glasses exasperated with his phone. The Verizon logo is superimposed with the word out[r]age under it.](https://www.newsbeep.com/us-tx/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/eph_4-980x551.png)
NEW YORK, January 15, 2026: If you experienced cell service outages yesterday you weren’t alone as thousands of Verizon customers were without telephone for hours on Wednesday. Many were also without internet service. The Verizon outage impacted over 100,000 of its customers. Customers’ phones would display the SOS mode and not allow them to make or receive telephone calls during the service outage. Internet users were unable to connect online.
Several local governments advised Verizon customers to use a landline or Wi-Fi calling. Landline subscribers in the U.S. have been steadily declining from almost 180% market penetration in 1999 (includes business lines) to less than 80% last year. Today, less than 25% of American households have a landline.
Verizon customers in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, New York, Seattle and Washington seem to have been the most affected yesterday according to online reports. Customers in Texas and El Paso were also affected by the outage.
The outage led New York State Assemblyman Anil Beephan to post on his social media that he has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate “the ongoing and repeated service outages affecting Verizon Wireless customers” in his district.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told Reuters yesterday that the FCC was aware of the outage and would “take appropriate action” after a review of the incident.
The outage began around 10:30 in the morning and lasted until around 8:20 in the evening.
Screenshot of Downdector Verizon outage chart for January 14, 2026.
Verizon said that it will be providing account credits to its customers affected by the ten-hour outage. Verizon acknowledged that they “let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” after outrage over the outage intensified online hours after Verizon hadn’t restored service for its users.
No word yet on what kind of compensation Verizon customers can expect.
The company says that any Verizon customer still experiencing problems this morning should restart their telephones so that their phones will reconnect to Verizon’s network.
The Bundling No No
Telephone service providers routinely offer discounted prices if the customer bundles internet and telephone services under one account. Verizon has been pushing its bundling discount to its customers in the recent months.
Although the discount may seem attractive, when a company like Verizon experiences a service outage, it is likely to affect the range of services the company provides. Yesterday’s Verizon outage affected not just customers’ telephone services but also the Wi-Fi services bundled with the phone service leaving subscribers without Wi-Fi and telephone service for hours yesterday.
Experts on connectivity caution against bundling services together because of the shared service risk of an outage. Offering customers bundling discounts is cost effective for the companies because the capacity to provide the services remains the same when a household bundles services, but it increases revenues for the company.
When a household of four people bundles telephone and Wi-Fi service together, the capacity to provide service to the four individuals remains largely the same while increasing the revenues for the company. But when services are interrupted like yesterday’s Verizon outage, both the telephone and Wi-Fi services stop working leaving the household without connectivity.
Verizon’s Outages and Customer Churn
Verizon has experienced problems with its service in recent years affecting many of its customers. In November 2024, Verizon’s internet was down for millions of its internet customers in east coast cities like Boston and New York. Other mass outages have occurred over the last couple of years.
Yesterday’s outage was nationwide.
Last year, Verizon acknowledged that it was losing customers at a high rate after a series of price hikes. Verizon risked losing almost 85 million customers after its most recent price hike last year, forcing the company’s CEO, Dan Schulman, to cut costs to keep prices in check.
To cut costs, Schulman announced it was laying off 15,000 employees and converting about 200 Verizon stores into franchise operations. It also announced it was ramping up integrating AI into its operations in November.
Verizon has not yet released the cause of yesterday’s outage, raising questions if layoffs and AI were behind the outage. As for its customer churn, Verizon has promised account credits as compensation, but will that be enough to keep its customers from abandoning Verizon for cheaper prices and more reliable service?
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