At around 1:00 AM local time on October 17, a major network outage occurred at the US-based carrier Verizon. Reports indicate that all Verizon users across the United States experienced interruptions in mobile and internet services, affecting personal and business communications nationwide and raising concerns among millions of users about the stability of communication. This is one of several service disruptions that have occurred in recent months.

According to the website Downdetector, which monitors service outages, the number of reported incidents surged to 7,531 at 12:20 AM on Friday Eastern Time, then dropped to 3,169 at 1:35 AM, and further decreased to 760 at 2:05 AM, still far above the baseline level of 35 for the same period. By 3:30 AM on Friday, the number of reports had dropped to 314 (the baseline during this period was 29), and by 9:07 AM, it had fallen to 306.

Downdetector's map shows that reports of outages were widespread across the country, with particularly high concentrations in New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Detroit, and Minneapolis. Users in Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Seattle were also affected.

As of 2:45 AM Eastern Time, among users reporting service issues: 52% reported problems with mobile services, 40% encountered signal loss, and 8% said their 5G home internet was affected.

Downdetector's map of reported outages within the United States on the early morning of October 17

A self-proclaimed Verizon user left a comment on Downdetector: "The power went out in Jackson, Michigan. When I tried to contact customer service, I was denied service because I couldn't receive a verification code—luckily, my car's AT&T (note: another major US carrier) network was still working." Another user commented: "My home internet in Novi went down at 12:15 AM, and rebooting the router didn't help. I'm glad my mobile network wasn't using Verizon." One user joked: "It's about time we went back to the old way of communication with two tin cans and a rope." Another user noticed that Apple phone users from Verizon and its subsidiaries Visible and Straight Talk displayed an "SOS" icon in the status bar, indicating no signal connection.

According to Verizon data, as of June 30, 2025, the company had 146.1 million wireless retail connections and 10.4 million broadband users, making it one of the largest mobile communication and broadband service providers in the United States. The service interruption that occurred early Friday morning could have potentially affected many businesses and households, but due to the peak of the outage occurring late at night, the actual impact was controlled.

Notably, this is another network failure for Verizon in a short period. Just on October 9, some Verizon users experienced brief connectivity issues. According to Downdetector records, the number of reported incidents reached a peak of 1,244 at 12:56 AM. After the previous incident, a Verizon spokesperson stated: "Some users in the Charlotte, North Carolina area may have experienced a brief service disruption early Thursday morning, and engineers have located and resolved the issue promptly."

As of the time of this writing, the number of reported Verizon outages recorded by Downdetector has significantly declined from its peak and continues to show a downward trend. As for this incident, Verizon has not issued any official statement, but historical experience suggests it may be related to network maintenance, server failures, or unexpected technical issues.

Frequent incidents, although the network can be quickly restored later, the negative impact has already been formed. A user left a comment: "Service suddenly returned, but both my phone and network being completely down made me wary of the fragility of modern communication."

Source: China Post and Telecommunications Daily

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7562469621920514602/

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