Technology

Nationwide Verizon outage affects thousands of customers in Los Angeles

Users reported iPhones displaying SOS mode during the widespread morning outages.

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

Verizon customers were reporting outages Monday in Los Angeles and across the United States, but the company said service was being restored in an afternoon update.

Outages began around 6 a.m. in the Los Angeles area, according to the website Downdetector. Most of the outages reported early Monday were in Chicago, Minneapolis and other Midwest cities with other reports coming from Phoenix and Denver.

There were more than 3,000 outage reports received from customers in the Los Angeles area by 9 a.m. By early Monday afternoon, the post had more than 7,800 responses.

Nationwide, more than 80,000 reports had been submitted on the site early Monday.

In an update Monday afternoon, Verizon said service "has started to be restored."

"Verizon engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored," Verizon said. "We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today. We continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this issue."

Verizon released a statement earlier to NBC News: "We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue."

Details about what led to the outages were not immediately available.

The telecommunications company responded to users on its support account on X saying, "We understand the importance of staying connected, and would be happy to take a look at what's occurring,. Please send us a DM, and we can jump right in!" and "Hello! I know how frustrating this may be and how important it is to have reliable service. Send us a DM to address any concerns you may have today."

Users also reported issues accessing Verizon's support page on its website. A post on X by Verizon Support had hundred of responses by mid-morning.

Why is my phone SOS?

Many users reported phones displaying "SOS" mode. The message appears on iPhones when a device is not connected to a cellular network to indicated the user can still make emergency calls through other networks.

The feature is available only in the United States, Canada and Australia.

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