Ongoing Verizon outage leaves many with phones stuck on 'SOS'

Verizon customers across the U.S., particularly on the East Coast, are facing a frustrating service outage. Many have reported their phones displaying the ‘SOS’ signal, leaving them unable to make calls, send texts, or access mobile data.

Reports of the issue started flooding in a few hours ago. According to Downdetector, the majority of complaints are coming from New York, Florida, and Boston. Customers are primarily experiencing problems with mobile service, though some have also reported issues with Verizon’s 5G home internet and landline connections.

Many have also taken to X to complain about the problem. “Verizon, what the f#ck is going on with your service? Fix it or I demand a refund,” wrote one user. Another chimed in, saying, “Anyone else have Verizon, and it’s just constant SOS rn?” One user even shared a screen recording showing the SOS icon:

okay so i remember this happening to another phone carrier before, so i guess it’s happening with verizon users rn idk. that sos only looks kind of scary though tbh… pic.twitter.com/I3g1jL2AZT

— oliver💗🎗 (@woahitsoliver) December 11, 2024

Verizon’s customer support team is responding to complaints on X, asking affected users to send direct messages for further assistance. But these responses are the usual generic ones and you’ll most likely see the service restored itself before getting any valuable info from support.

So far, Verizon hasn’t provided an official explanation for the outage. So if you’re a Verizon customer seeing the ‘SOS’ signal, you’re not alone. This typically means your phone has lost connection to the Verizon network but can still make emergency calls. Unfortunately, until the issue is fixed, regular services will remain unavailable.

Judging by the slowdown in the number of reports coming in at the time of writing this article, it seems the problem will be fixed sooner rather than later.