Verizon confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it was working to address an outage that reportedly affected tens of thousands of customers in the eastern United States, including Houston and Dallas.
People with Verizon devices reported that their phones suddenly shifted into “SOS mode,” and they were unable to make calls or access data. At one point, 178,000 reports were filed within a 15-minute window, CNN reported.
Downdetector, a website that tracks user-submitted outage complaints, reported about 1 million complaints were generated over the past 24 hours, although some may have come from the same user.
Verizon addressed the outage on social media Wednesday afternoon, saying, “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
SOS mode advises users that they don’t have a proper cellular connection and can only call or text emergency services. Washington, D.C.’s official alert system acknowledged the outage, encouraging users who had an emergency and were unable to call 911 to use a device assigned to a provider other than Verizon or go to a police or fire station to file a report.
Houston and Harris County hadn’t issued any official statements about the outage at press time. One Verizon user told the Houston Press that it didn’t appear the matter would be resolved anytime soon. Another said two neighbors showed up asking to use her phone to make urgent calls.
Verizon has not revealed the cause of the outage. Tech consultants speculate it could have been prompted by faulty configuration changes or software updates gone wrong.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.