What Caused That Massive Verizon Outage? Details

As one of the largest cell service providers in the United States, Verizon is a service that many people rely on to stay in touch with one another or browse their favorite apps. That's why so many people were upset following the news that the company was dealing with an outage that was impacting tens of thousands of customers.

The company is now claiming that it has resolved that outage, but many people still want to better understand what caused the outage and why it lasted so long. Here's what we know.

Verizon has not disclosed the cause of the outage, per CNN, but it was officially reported at 10:30 ET after users had been filing issues with the company for hours in cities as far apart as New York and Dallas.

“Today, we let many of our customers down, and for that, we are truly sorry,” a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement. “They expect more from us.”

Across social media, users were saying their phones were stuck in SOS mode, and they were unable to find service.

Verizon also shared that it's planning to send account credits to those affected and that it will provide a more complete explanation of what happened in the days ahead.

According to Downdetector, more than 1 million issues were reported within a 24-hour period, suggesting that the issue was both widespread and that it took Verizon a significant amount of time to resolve it.

Even as many people look for answers as to what exactly happened, others are still experiencing issues hours after Verizon claims to have resolved them. If you're someone still having problems, the best thing to do is to restart your phone or turn Airplane Mode on and off. Some users have taken these steps, though, and are still finding themselves having issues connecting to the network.

Needless to say, this has been a frustrating experience for Verizon customers across the country, and while credits will go some distance toward helping people feel better, many still want more answers as to what exactly happened and why the outage lasted so long.

We live in a world where cell service feels like an essential part of our lives. It's crucial for everything from connecting with someone on the phone to navigating our way to wherever we might be going.

Of course, it's worth remembering that humanity survived and flourished for decades before cell service ever existed. Now that we've come to rely on it, though, it's much more difficult to go without.

What's also true, though, is that thousands of customers are furious because they pay for service, not outages.

Cell service might not be as essential as food or water for our immediate survival, but customers should get the reliable service that they're paying for, and that's a huge part of why so many people are still looking for answers from Verizon.