Verizon, one of the largest cell phone carriers in the United States, experienced massive outages on Wednesday, impacting over 150,000 customers. “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon told ABC News. “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,” it added. There were more than 130,000 incidents of people reporting issues with Verizon's services around 1:11 pm ET, according to Downdetector. https://t.co/oTVTkeRdly — HuffPost (@HuffPost) January 14, 2026 ABC News shared more: Many Verizon customers said on social media that their phones showed “SOS” in place of network bars. According to Downdetector, at least 175,000 Verizon customers were affected at one point, but that number has since gone down. Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time. By 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, the number of Verizon customers affected by the outage was down to less than 60,000, according to Downdetector. “Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today’s service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue,” Verizon stated on social media. “We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” it added. Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today's service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible. — Verizon News (@VerizonNews) January 14, 2026 “Today, I formally asked the FCC to investigate the repeated Verizon wireless outages that have occurred over the past year,” New York State Assemblyman Anil Beephan said. “Whether caused by internal failures or external interference, these ongoing disruptions pose a serious threat to public safety and to the people we represent. Reliable wireless service is essential for emergency response, public alerts, businesses, and everyday communication,” he added. Today, I formally asked the FCC to investigate the repeated Verizon wireless outages that have occurred over the past year. Whether caused by internal failures or external interference, these ongoing disruptions pose a serious threat to public safety and to the people we… pic.twitter.com/dcFVKZ9Vdd — Anil Beephan | New York (@AnilBeephanjr) January 14, 2026 USA TODAY provided further info: If you have an Apple iPhone 14 or newer model, you will see “SOS” or “SOS only” in the status bar at the top of your phone display when the cellular network isn’t available. However, your iPhone can still make emergency calls using other networks and possibly via satellite. If you need to make an emergency call, press and hold the side button and either volume button simultaneously until the sliders appear and the countdown on Emergency SOS ends, then release the buttons. Or, you can start an Emergency SOS call by quickly pressing the side button five times. To set up that feature, go to Settings > Emergency SOS, then turn on “Call with 5 Presses.” On an Android phone, you may see “No Service” or “Mobile Network Not Detected,” but you can make an emergency call using Emergency SOS mode, on Android 12 and later models, notes prepaid phone provider TextNow.