Verizon outage: Why your phone says SOS, what we know so far

Verizon outage: Why your phone says SOS, what we know so far
By: Mashable Posted On: January 14, 2026 View: 2

What to know about a major Verizon outage.
 By 
Tim Marcin
 on 
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Credit: Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

User-reported issues indicated a major problem at Verizon, with folks noting what appeared to be widespread service outages.

User-reported issues spiked at Downdetector around midday, Eastern time on Wednesday. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, the same parent company as Mashable.)

"Verizon is currently facing a massive service outage with a total of 235,373 reports recorded over the last 24 hours," noted Downdetector.


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Verizon's support page on X wrote that it was aware users were having issues and that it was working on fixing the problem.

"We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers," the account posted. "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."

Some users on social media indicated their phones were in SOS mode.

What does SOS mean on your phone?

In short, when you see SOS on your phone, it means you're not connected to a cellular network. "If you see SOS or 'SOS only' in the status bar, your device isn't connected to your cellular network, but you can still make emergency calls through other carrier networks," reads an Apple support page on the feature.

Are T-Mobile, AT&T having issues, too?

Around the same time user-reported issues for Verizon spiked, the same trend occurred for T-Mobile and AT&T. Both services experienced spikes in reports on Downdetector. That does not mean, however, that the carriers were necessarily experiencing the same issue confirmed by Verizon. Downdector tracks user-reported issues, which can be made in error or for an entirely different problem.

This story is developing and will be updated as necessary...

Topics AT&T

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Tim Marcin
Associate Editor, Culture

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).

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