Thousands of Verizon customers across the United States experienced a significant disruption to their mobile service on Saturday afternoon, leaving many unable to make calls or send messages for several hours. The issues began surfacing around 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, quickly escalating into a widespread problem centered primarily in major urban hubs such as New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. According to the tracking site Downdetector, reports peaked at over 13,000 complaints during the height of the blackout.
The ripple effect of the outage extended beyond just Verizon subscribers. Data indicated that users of other major wireless networks, including AT&T and T-Mobile US, also faced difficulties when attempting to connect with those on the Verizon network. This cross-carrier interference left hundreds of people stranded without reliable communication channels throughout the weekend afternoon.
In a statement provided to CNBC, Verizon confirmed that its engineering team has since resolved the technical glitch affecting voice services for wireless customers. While connectivity has largely returned to normal, company representatives suggested that anyone still experiencing lingering issues should try restarting their device to refresh the connection. Despite restoring service, Verizon has not yet disclosed what specifically caused the system failure.