Verizon, one of the United States’ largest wireless cell service providers, saw a massive outage on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands users reported that they had no network and their phones were stuck in SOS mode.
Users across iPhone, Android, and other devices reported the outage on social media and Down Detector, a platform that tracks outages based on reports from users. At the peak of the outage, more than 185,000 Verizon users reported facing issues with the network on Down Detector.
The nationwide outage has sparked questions around what caused it. From a cyberattack to an infrastructure glitch, a lot of reasons are being peddled on social media. However, as of now, an official cause behind the outage has not been specified by the company, headquartered in New York City.
In this article, let’s look at what we know so far about the cause of the massive outage with Verizon today.
What Caused The Verizon Outage? What We Know So Far
Verizon Support, the official X account of Verizon’s customer support, acknowledged the issue. An X post pinned on their X handle notes that their engineers are trying to identify and fix the issue as quickly as possible.
“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon Support said. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”
Thus, as of now, Verizon has not officially disclosed a cause behind the outage on Wednesday. Claims of a cyberattack circulating on social media are also unsubstantiated.
Also read: Verizon down: What to do if phone says ‘SOS’ amid massive outage? Here’s how to check your network status
Social Media Flooded With Cyberattack Speculation
Hundreds of users on social media speculated that the Verizon outage on Tuesday could be linked to a cyberattack. The speculation continued despite there being no confirmation of the same, as of now.
“Chances of Verizon outages as an Iranian cyberattack?” one user wrote.
“With Verizon, T-Mobile, and At&T being down, you have to at least consider this is some sort of cyberattack. From who? Your guess is as good as mine,” wrote another.
“BREAKING: Verizon is having a possible Cyberattack right now. I think the Islamic Republic Of Iran is behind this,” said another.
T-Mobile and AT$T also experienced some outages, with around 2000 users using both networks reporting problems on Down Detector.
Verizon outage update: What is causing the SOS issue today? What we know so far
