Verizon customers on the East Coast have had some issues today, as user reports on DownDetector began to spike early this morning.
According to the website — which tracks outages across popular services — problems started to appear at the carrier around 8:30 am ET. The number of complaints has started to steadily rise since then, with just over half the reports listing mobile cell service as the problem. Meanwhile, 20% of reports claim their 5G home internet is affected, while 16% say that mobile internet is the problem.
However, by midday, the reports had subsided and Verizon seemed to have identified and solved the problem.
Verizon has responded to the claims with the following statement: "The fiber cuts that impacted wireless service for some customers in Western Pennsylvania earlier today have been repaired and service has been restored for all customers. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience."
We're following this outage as it happens right now, and if you're affected, please let us know in the comments.
Verizon outage live: Latest Updates
The affected areas
We started to see reports of issues appear before 9am ET today, May 5, and it's no surprise to see the majority of reports have come from the New York area. However, it seems the entire East Coast may be having issues with the carrier, as reports are coming in from Florida and New Orleans as well.
Over 1K reports and climbing...
There's always going to be some fluctuations with a service the size of Verizon, but when you see a spike go up like this... well, there's usually no smoke without fire.
Reports on DownDetector went north of 1,000 just after 10am ET. And they're continuing to rise.
Over on X/Twitter, affected users are also reporting issues to Verizon support.
.@Verizon got issues this morning. Can't stay connected on calls ... even on wi-fi. And network registration keeps going up and down.@VerizonSupportMay 5, 2026
Verizon statement on the outage
The Verizon Support account on X/Twitter has explained the cause of today's issues and said that engineers are currently working to restore service.
According to a response to a customer, the mobile carrier says, "Fiber cuts in Western Pennsylvania are preventing some wireless customers from connecting to the Verizon network.
"Our engineers are actively working to solve the issue. We know how important reliable communication is and apologize for this inconvenience."
Fiber cuts in Western Pennsylvania are preventing some wireless customers from connecting to the Verizon network. Our engineers are actively working to solve the issue. We know how important reliable communication is and apologize for this inconvenience. Customers can receive…May 5, 2026
Verizon should deal with this swiftly
Verizon is no stranger to dealing with outages and issues across its network. Just last month, the mobile carrier experienced a minor outage. That was over relatively swiftly, but back in January, Verizon recorded a nationwide issue that saw thousands of customers lose connectivity for over half a day.
Hopefully, the problems today are just a blip and the company is able to solve them quickly and return service to users.
Reports are holding steady
According to the latest information from DownDetector, the reports have plateaued at just past 1,000 for the last 30 minutes or so. This could indicate just a regional blip that should hopefully be resolved soon.
Does @Verizon have service issues right now? Phone is in SOS mode.May 5, 2026
Are you affected by today's Verizon outage?
According to Verizon, today's issues are focused around Western Pennsylvania, but it's likely that many more regions are affected. If you're currently experiencing issues, let us know in the poll above and feel free to add to the comments section below this article.
Verizon's status checker is... not optimistic
If you're a Verizon customer, you can use the mobile carrier's network status page to check the availability in your area. I situated myself at New York City's Radio City Music Hall to see what it would tell me.
According to Verizon's own page, data, voice, text and wireless home internet are limited in this area. What's more, Verizon suggests I may not see full service resumed until 8:40pm this evening. Which is a bit concerning.
What to do if you see SOS on your phone
If you are seeing SOS in the status bar of your iPhone it means you have no network connection.
iPhones after the iPhone 14 do have built-in satellite connectivity (more on that in another post).
Here's a guide on how to troubleshoot your phone if the SOS status appears.
Reports are falling
Over on DownDetector, the reports of today's issues seem to be falling fast. This is probably a good indicator the outage will soon be resolved. At the time of writing (11:20am ET), reports have fallen from a peak of 1,100 down to just over 600.
Turns out this may have just been a tiny hiccup in the company's services today. Are you still having problems? Let us know below.
Some issues still persisting, but the worst looks to be over
Verizon's Support account on X.com is busy responding to queries by pointing people to the status checker alongside a canned statement: "We understand how important is to have a reliable service that you can depend on it."
We understand how important is to have a reliable service that you can depend on it. Feel free to use this link to monitor our network status in real time and even provide feedback on any current issues! Take a look: https://t.co/s44bFiLkdHDon't hesitate to send us a DM for… https://t.co/LmWSJoFfjhMay 5, 2026
But with DownDetector reports now down at less than 500 reports, I think we can confidently say the worst is probably behind us today.
Estimated time for a fix
Based on the Down Detector map, most reports appear to be coming from around New York City and the Gulf of Mexico, especially around Louisiana and Mississippi.
Using the Verizon service status page we tested a few zip codes.
It's a mixed bag, none of the areas we checked in Louisiana or Mississippi had issues. NYC, however, did pop up and the problems aren't supposed to be resolved until 9 pm Eastern, a full 12 hours from now.
Reports are down but...
Reports are hovering around 225 on Down Detector, not quite going away. Usually this indicates that things are settling now.
However, I'm still seeing complaints under the official Verizon support X account.
Are you having issues?
Hey, let us know if you're having issues with your Verizon service.
Reports are about the same on DD but I am still seeing service outage concerns on X and the Verizon service page.
It's hard to tell currently how widespread things are beyond individual comments on Twitter.
Looks mostly over
Alright, with reports way down and a lack of information from Verizon, it appears this outage is over.
We'll keep an eye on things if it changes, but that's where we stand at this moment.
