Verizon outage update: Cause, credits, and what to know about the SOS snafu heard around the country

Yesterday, customers of Verizon Communications across the country picked up their phones only to discover that they had no service.

Calls, texts, and the internet simply didn’t work. Verizon now says the underlying issue has been resolved. But just what caused it, and will Verizon compensate customers for the outage? Here’s what you need to know.

What happened?

On Wednesday, a little after noon ET, customers around the country began taking to social media to report that they had lost Verizon service on their phones. Calls and texts could not be made or received, and internet access was nonexistent.

Many iPhone owners on Verizon’s network saw the “SOS” icon in their menu bar, meaning no network was available, and any communication was limited to satellite connectivity.

Over the course of a few hours, Verizon posted several social media messages saying it was aware of the issue and had teams working on the ground to fix it. But it wasn’t until around 10 p.m. ET that Verizon said the issue had been fixed.

“The outage has been resolved,” Verizon said in a post on X. “If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network.”

What caused the outage?

Right now, Verizon hasn’t disclosed what exactly caused its network to go down for so many hours. Fast Company has reached out to the company for comment.

What is known is that many Verizon users on social media who have multiple phones on Verizon’s network reported that not all of their phones lost service yesterday. Many customers have reported that only their phones with Verizon eSIMs lost service, while their phones with physical Verizon SIMs remained active.

However, there is so far no evidence that the disruption was directly linked to eSIMs or that only eSIM users were affected.

The massive outage also comes just a few months after Verizon conducted the largest layoffs in its history. In November, the company announced it would begin laying off 13,000 workers. In a memo to staff at the time, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said the layoffs were needed “to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.”

It is unknown whether the workforce reductions had any impact on Verizon’s outage or the company’s ability to resolve it in a timely manner.

Will customers be compensated?

Verizon’s outage lasted about 10 hours, severely straining people’s ability to work and communicate for a significant period, leading to understandable outrage from its customers.

In a post on X, Verizon said that “account credits” will be provided to those customers affected and that customers will be contacted directly.

However, it has not provided more details about the compensation, including how much the credits will be worth and whether they will be automatic or if customers will need to apply for them. We’ve asked the company for additional details and will update this story if we hear back.

Free donuts and snarky competitors

To every problem, there is usually some kind of silver lining. Or, in this case, sugary lining.

As the Verizon outage quickly became the thing that everyone on social media was talking about yesterday, donut giant Krispy Kreme decided to get in on the action by announcing it was giving away free donuts due to the outage.

“SOS got you down?” the company posted on its Instagram account. “We can hear you now…” the post went on, in a reference to Verizon’s famous “Can you hear me now?” slogan.

The donut chain then announced customers could come by between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. yesterday for a free original glazed donut, “because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.”

And it wasn’t just Krispy Kreme getting in on the Verizon outage action. Verizon’s competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, decided to jump in on the free-donut action and leave their own snarky comments on Krispy Kreme’s post.

“T-Mobile members out here texting everybody they know,” the official T-Mobile account commented in response to the free donut offer. 

As for AT&T, the company’s official IG account commented, “Def not us this time, we’ll sit this one out and enjoy the donuts,” alluding to its own nationwide outage, which occurred in February 2024.

How has Verizon’s stock reacted to the outage?

The incident has not seemed to impact the company’s stock price (NYSE: VZ). Shares rose more than 2% yesterday and were roughly flat on Thursday in premarket trading.

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