Daijiworld Media Network – New York

New York, Jan 15: Verizon on Wednesday night said its wireless services were fully restored after a widespread outage disrupted cellular data and voice calls for much of the day, affecting millions of users across the United States.

A company spokesperson said shortly after 10 pm ET that the issue had been resolved. “If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network,” the spokesperson said, apologising for the disruption and adding that affected customers would receive account credits, with details to be shared directly.

The outage, which began around noon ET, triggered a flood of complaints on social media, with users reporting “no bars” or “SOS” signals on their mobile phones. Reports of service disruption peaked in the early afternoon and remained high through the evening, touching nearly 33,000 by 8 pm, according to online outage trackers.

Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the US with over 146 million customers, issued multiple statements during the day saying its engineers were working to identify and resolve the problem. However, the company did not disclose the specific cause of the outage.

“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” Verizon said in a statement at 9 pm ET. “They expect more from us.”

The prolonged disruption prompted calls for regulatory scrutiny. Republican New York State Assembly member Anil Beephan Jr. urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate the outage, citing its “significant and unacceptable impact on public safety,” including disruptions to emergency communications.

The FCC said it was aware of the outage affecting some Verizon customers and was continuing to monitor the situation.

While some users initially reported issues with rival networks, T-Mobile and AT&T both clarified that their services were operating normally.

Emergency alert systems in Washington, D.C., New York City and several other major metropolitan areas issued advisories, urging residents to use alternative carriers, landlines or visit police and fire stations in case of emergencies. New York City’s Office of Emergency Management said it was coordinating with Verizon and assessing potential impacts on essential services.

Officials also used the incident to stress the importance of emergency preparedness. “It’s a good reminder for people to have an emergency plan, to have backups,” said Christina Farrell, first deputy commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. “Everybody should have a Plan A and a Plan B.”