DOTHAN, Ala. (WDNews) — Verizon says it will issue $20 account credits to customers affected by a widespread service outage that disrupted calls and text messages for thousands of users across the country.
The outage lasted for several hours Wednesday before service was restored later that evening. Verizon said the credit is meant to acknowledge customers’ time and frustration following the disruption.
In a statement, the company said most affected customers can redeem the credit through the myVerizon app. Business customers will be contacted directly.
Outage tracking site Downdetector reported that service issues began around noon Eastern time Wednesday, with more than 178,000 customer reports at the peak. By mid-afternoon, reports had dropped to fewer than 60,000.
The highest number of outage reports came from major metro areas including New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte and Houston. Many customers reported their phones displaying “SOS” instead of signal bars.
Officials with New York City Emergency Management said the outage affected some attempts to reach 911. Residents unable to connect were advised to use another carrier, a landline, or visit a nearby police or fire station.
Law enforcement officials said there is no indication the outage was caused by a cyberattack. Sources told ABC News the issue is believed to be a technical failure tied to a server problem in New Jersey. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency referred questions about the outage back to Verizon.
Verizon said customers still experiencing issues should restart their devices to reconnect to the network.
