Nationwide Verizon outage impacted customers in the Seattle area

Over 100,000 Verizon users across the country reported a service outage Monday morning, including some in the Seattle area.

Downdetector first started seeing reports of issues shortly after 6:30 a.m. and the issues peaked at more than 105,000 users just after 8:15 a.m. As of 8:45 a.m., over 82,000 users still were reporting issues. The number has been steadily decreasing since it reached its peak between 8 and 9 a.m. As of 3 p.m., the number of reports of issues was at around 7,400. As of 11 p.m., the number of reports was down into the hundreds. Downdetector “is powered by unbiased, transparent user reports and problem indicators from around the web,” according to its website. It is part of is connectivity intelligence company Ookla, which is a division of media and internet company Ziff Davis.

Verizon’s X account @VerizonNews published a post at 8:48 a.m. confirming “an issue impacting service for some customers.” The company added its engineers are working to solve the issue.

The @VerizonNews account added another post just before 2 p.m. stating its the company’s engineers “are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored.”

That Verizon account confirmed shortly after 4:15 p.m. on X that the company’s engineers “fully restored today’s network disruption” and “Service has returned to normal levels.”

Verizon engineers have fully restored today’s network disruption that impacted some customers. Service has returned to normal levels. If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience.…

— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) September 30, 2024

Earlier in the day, as USA Today noted in its coverage, Verizon’s customer service account on X, @VerizonSupport, had been responding to dozens of users reporting service issues.

“Right now we are experiencing a nationwide outage that is affecting several cities,” one post to a user in Phoenix states. “Our technicians are working on getting the situation fixed and service will start to be restored gradually.”

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also published a post on X about the Verizon outage, stating it is “working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions.”

Dozens of people in the Seattle area, including AM 770 KTTH host Jason Rantz, reported on X Monday morning that they were experiencing service issues. Just before 2 p.m., Jason wrote on X his service still was down after reporting Monday morning he didn’t have service.

My Verizon service is still completely down. I had about 30 seconds with bars around noon but that’s it. Why does it seem like it’s way, way worse than Verizon is admitting?

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) September 30, 2024

Several X users noted their phones were stuck in SOS mode. Some Verizon iPhone customers saw SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular provider’s network, but it can make emergency calls through other carrier networks.

@Verizon is having difficulties in the Seattle area. I am not able to send or receive phone calls. This sucks! pic.twitter.com/9tRalqjrXc

— Rhonda Porter (@mortgageporter) September 30, 2024

“I just saw that I didn’t have any signal but everything else was working on Wi-Fi,” Vivian in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood told KIRO Newsradio.

During cell service outages like this, one alternative is connecting to nearby Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi calling is also a built-in feature on most Android devices and iPhones and can be turned on under the phone’s settings.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.