A widespread Verizon outage left customers across the nation without service on Saturday, with many phones showing only SOS signals. Verizon blamed the disruption on a software issue and said engineers were working to restore wireless service as quickly as possible.
Local residents were quick to share their frustrations.
“My kid was going nuts that Fortnite just went out. Luckily I have Kinetic too,” said Alexandria Holzmiller.
Others reported entire households losing service. “Located in Clarkesville and all our lines with Verizon show SOS. That’s five of us here,” said Melissa Brooks.
The issue wasn’t limited to one town. “Out in Canon,” said Pamela Sullivan, while Sherry Moore Adams reported the same in Turnerville. Teresa Pless added that Eastanollee had no service, and Mandy Barnes said she was experiencing the outage in Dillard.
Some noted the outage was inconsistent, even within the same family. “Mine and my son’s phones are showing SOS with no service unless connected to Wi-Fi, and my daughter and husband’s phones have been fine,” said Cassie House. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of Verizon, but it always hangs up because of the high call volume.”
Others described the situation as confusing. “Yep, it has definitely been strange… affects some and some it hasn’t. Verizon confirmed this,” said Vickie Flood.
By Saturday evening, Verizon said service was beginning to return in affected areas. “Our engineers have been working diligently on today’s service disruption and continue to work to ensure remaining customers are fully restored as soon as possible,” the company said in a statement.
