Verizon outage affecting users in Michigan, across US is restored, company says
(This story was updated to add new information.)
The mobile phone outage that affected Verizon customers in Michigan and nationwide on Monday, was fully restored and had returned to normal levels after being out for several hours, the company announced.
"If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device," Verizon said in an email to the Free Press just before 8 p.m. "We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your patience."
Verizon customers in metro Detroit reported service issues in the morning as part of a larger, nationwide connectivity problem that the wireless company said started at about 9 a.m., and that it worked on for several hours.
Some customers said they were unable to make or receive calls but could send text messages.
In addition to how many customers were reporting issues, Downdetector also offered maps showing where the reports were coming from. Verizon's outages, the site said, were throughout the Midwest — including Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Omaha, Nebraska.
Other major cities with connection problems included Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Phoenix.
What is SOS status?
Many affected phones indicated "SOS only" in the phone status bar or an SOS icon, which meant the devices weren't connected to a cellular network, but, as a safety feature in the United States and Canada, could still make emergency calls.
SOS, which is now short for emergency, stood for "save our souls" or "save our ship," in the days of Morse Code.
Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed customers reporting outages at about 9 a.m., and by about 11 a.m., the number of customers spiked to more than 100,000, although that number had been tapering off, and by 5 p.m. was getting close to 20,000.
Later, the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that regulates wireless companies, said on social media it was "aware of a Verizon outage impacting customers in parts of the country," and "working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions."
By about 5 p.m., the phone company announced on social media its "engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored," and apologized "for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today."
Verizon outage maps
But to be safe, Ford Field, where the Lions were set to play the Seahawks, urged fans on social media to access their electronic tickets by Wi-Fi before arriving, and downloading them into their phone's mobile wallet to help provide "the most seamless entry" into the stadium.
Verizon did not say what caused the outage or how many customers were affected.
Some speculated the outage mostly affected newer phones..
Search trends showed many checking Google to try to find answers why their service was out. And the Downdetector site also indicated customers of other carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and US Cellular, also reporting service outages at about the same time, but in much smaller numbers.
Verizon also offered its own outage map.
In order to check on Verizon's outages, the company said its customers must be logged into the website, but users should be able find troubleshooting information, report problems and get a ticket number and estimated time of repair completion.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Verizon: Phone outage for some users in Michigan is fixed
