Verizon outage hits thousands nationwide

Customers using Verizon wireless experienced widespread disruptions to phone service Wednesday afternoon, with reports of dropped calls, lost signal, and data issues popping up across the country.

Verizon confirmed it is aware of the outage, saying engineers are actively working to restore wireless voice and data service for impacted users. The company apologized for the disruption and acknowledged how critical reliable connectivity is for customers.

According to outage-tracking site Downdetector, reports surged just after midday, with well over 170,000 users reported problems after 10:00 a.m. EST. While reports began to decline later in the afternoon, issues were still being logged in major metro areas including New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Portland.

Most reports involved mobile phone service interruptions, followed by complete signal loss. Verizon said service restoration efforts remain ongoing.