US largest cell, internet provider reports massive outages across country

Nearly 200,000 Verizon customers were left without mobile phone and internet service Wednesday, as the largest service provider in the US scrambled to fix the massive outage.

At the peak of the outage at about 12.30 pm EST (1730GMT), 182,178 Verizon customers had no signal, according to online outrage tracker Downdetector.

"We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers," Verizon said in a statement posted on US social media platform X. "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."

The outages affected Verizon customers nationwide, including in the states of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

Verizon said it is continuing to troubleshoot and work on the problem, with nearly 75,000 customers getting their service restored by mid-afternoon.

"Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today's service interruptions," the company said in an update. "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."

While Verizon has the largest number of customers in the US with 146.1 million wireless connections, other providers also suffered outages, although not as severe.

T-Mobile had 1,857 outages and AT&T had 1,755 customers lose signals, according to Downdetector.

Mobile users who lost service received "Call Failed" notices on their devices when attempting to make calls and found an "SOS" icon replacing the signal strength symbols, indicating a problem with their wireless network.