The nation’s top communications regulator is formally asking consumers, businesses, and public agencies to document their experiences during Verizon’s recent nationwide wireless outage. The Federal Communications Commission wants granular, real-world accounts to support an investigation into how the disruption affected voice, text, data, and access to emergency services.
The blackout, which stretched for hours and rippled across multiple states, left many phones showing an SOS indicator instead of full service. That icon can mean emergency calling may still be available, but everyday communications often are not. Regulators now want to know exactly what worked, what failed, and how those failures impacted safety and commerce.
What the FCC Wants to Know From Affected Users
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is collecting detailed narratives rather than generic complaints. Officials are asking you to describe whether you could place or receive calls, whether text messaging and data functioned, if 911 was reachable, and how any failures affected your household, your business operations, or your local emergency response.
Useful submissions include your general location, the device and carrier plan you used, any error messages, whether Wi‑Fi calling or roaming helped, and what you tried to restore service. The agency has opened a dedicated mailbox for reports at VerizonOutage2026@fcc.gov.
How Wide the Verizon Wireless Disruption Was
Outage trackers such as Downdetector registered a sharp surge in reports, rising into the hundreds of thousands at the peak. Social media posts and customer forums showed a common pattern: phones registered on the network but could not authenticate for voice or data, while some users reported that only Wi‑Fi calling or messaging apps worked.
Impacts varied by market. Individuals described missed family calls and banking alerts, while small businesses cited lost sales and appointment cancellations. Public agencies and schools reported difficulties reaching staff and parents through routine notification systems.
Public Safety Stakes of the Verizon Service Outage
Wireless reliability is a public safety issue. The National 911 Program has long noted that a large majority of emergency calls originate from mobile phones—well over 80% in many jurisdictions. The FCC is specifically probing whether people could reach 911, whether calls completed or dropped, and whether public safety answering points observed any anomalies.
Carriers must file confidential outage reports through the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System, and the agency can also activate its Disaster Information Reporting System for situational awareness. Public submissions help fill street‑level gaps, map uneven impacts, and inform potential remedies, enforcement, or new reliability best practices.
What Verizon Has Said About the Network Outage
Verizon acknowledged the disruption, attributed it to a software issue, and said engineers stabilized the network the same day. The company apologized and offered bill credits to affected customers, typically around $20 for consumer lines, while some small businesses reported larger goodwill adjustments after documenting losses.
The carrier is expected to cooperate fully with regulators, including submitting required technical reports. The FCC will review whether existing resiliency rules and industry best practices were followed and whether additional safeguards are warranted.
What Might Have Gone Wrong Inside Verizon’s Network
Industry engineers point to the 5G Standalone core as a likely pressure point. Modern mobile cores are cloud‑native and heavily automated; a flawed configuration or software push to core functions—such as the Access and Mobility Management Function, Session Management Function, or the policy and subscriber databases—can cascade quickly. Because LTE voice uses the IMS core and interworks with 5G, a single control‑plane fault can cripple voice, text, and data across radio generations.
Investigators will look at change‑management discipline, geo‑redundancy, and blast‑radius controls. Techniques like staged rollouts, canary testing, automated rollback, and regional segmentation can limit nationwide impact when something goes wrong.
How to Submit a Useful Outage Report to the FCC
Keep it factual and specific. Describe where you were, what services failed or worked, what your phone displayed, and how the disruption affected you or your organization. If applicable, note whether you could reach 911 or alternative numbers and whether you tried Wi‑Fi calling or another device. Send your account to VerizonOutage2026@fcc.gov.
The FCC’s goal is to build a complete picture of the outage’s scope, pinpoint root causes, and ensure the nation’s wireless networks—especially emergency calling—are resilient. Your firsthand account is evidence that helps regulators and carriers make the network stronger the next time something breaks.
