There is a significant cell phone outage today in the United States, mainly impacting Verizon customers’ voice and data service, with some knock‑on effects when trying to call between carriers.

What’s happening right now

  • Verizon is experiencing a major network outage affecting wireless voice and data for tens of thousands of users.
  • Reports surged around midday ET on January 14, 2026, with outage trackers logging over 100,000–180,000 reports at peak.
  • Many affected phones are showing “SOS” or no signal, meaning normal calls and data are not working on the Verizon network in impacted areas.

Where the outage is worst

  • The heaviest impact appears across large parts of the eastern half of the United States, according to outage maps and live trackers.
  • Outage reports are concentrated in major metro areas and along dense population corridors, but exact impact can vary block by block.

Other carriers (AT&T, T‑Mobile, etc.)

  • AT&T and T‑Mobile have seen smaller spikes in user complaints on outage sites, but both companies say their own networks are operating normally.
  • People on those networks may still have trouble calling or texting Verizon users because the issue is on Verizon’s side.

What Verizon is saying

  • Verizon has acknowledged the problem and says engineers are working to identify the cause and restore service as quickly as possible.
  • The company has publicly apologized for the disruption and emphasized the importance of reliable connectivity for customers’ day‑to‑day lives.

What you can do right now

  • Try enabling Wi‑Fi and using Wi‑Fi calling and messaging apps (such as internet‑based chat or VoIP) if available, since the outage primarily affects cellular voice/data, not home internet.
  • If you’re on a non‑Verizon carrier but can’t reach someone, assume they might be affected and try alternative channels (email, chat apps, social platforms) until service stabilizes.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.