We Finally Know What Caused The Verizon Outage, And It Wasn't What Many Assumed

In mid-January 2026, you may have looked down at your cell phone to check the time or send a text and realized that you had no service. Instead, your display may have read "SOS." If that's the case, you were one of millions of Verizon wireless customers affected by a widespread outage. In Washington, D.C., New York City, and some other large cities, Verizon sent out notifications that advised those without service to use a landline or a device connected to another carrier in order to get in touch with emergency services should they need it. At the time, Verizon issued a statement that it was working to quickly identify and resolve the issue, but it did not disclose the source. 

These types of network outages can be caused by a variety of issues, including equipment failure or other technical problems, server snags, deterioration or damage to infrastructure, power outages, and cyberattacks. In the absence of an explanation for what happened, speculation swirled that the outage was the result of some sort of cyberattack. It may sound like something from a movie, but past cyberattacks have occurred in places like Wisconsin, where one incident disrupted Cellcom service for a week in 2025. In this case, Verizon eventually announced that the outage was caused by a software issue and had nothing to do with a cyberattack. Here's what we know, and what you should do if you were affected by the loss of service.

In our digital age, widespread cell phone outages can be more than just an inconvenience. Many of us don't have landlines to contact emergency services, and while you should still be able to call 911 with your phone in SOS mode, some Verizon customers claimed even their emergency calls would not connect. Other customers said they were unable to get in touch with their healthcare providers. Outages can also leave us stranded and lost without access to GPS services.

Verizon did not clarify what exactly the software problem entailed, but the company is conducting a full review of the incident. One analyst told CNET they suspected the issue stemmed from a feature update that didn't go as expected. Whether that is true or not, there are no signs that there was a cybersecurity issue, so customers that were concerned about the integrity of their private data can relax. Because the outage affected so many people, New York State Assembly member Anil Beephan, Jr. appealed to the Federal Communications Commission to investigate. In a letter he wrote the agency, he wrote that the outage "had a significant and unacceptable impact on public safety." 

If you were affected by the outage, Verizon is offering a $20 account credit. You should have received a text message when the credit was available, and you can redeem it by logging into the MyVerizon app. In a statement, Verizon acknowledged that it "did not meet the standard of excellence" that its customers expect.