Users of T-Mobile and Verizon across the country faced disruptions on Monday afternoon, struggling to use their phones during a reported outage. Many users reported receiving SOS messages, indicating a lack of service. As of 8:40 p.m. ET, fewer than 7,000 reports had been submitted, a reduction from over 60,000 outage reports at 5:06 p.m. ET, according to DownDetector. The heat map identified New York City, Columbia, South Carolina, Springfield, Ohio, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis as hotspots for complaints.
Verizon users also experienced issues, though at lower volumes compared to T-Mobile. Verizon stated in a post on X that their network was operating normally nationwide, but acknowledged the reported outage on T-Mobile’s network might be affecting connections. Meanwhile, AT&T users encountered issues as well, yet reports decreased rapidly after peaking.
On Monday evening, T-Mobile communicated on X that they were actively addressing the technical challenges impacting customers. They assured that resolving the service impacts was their top priority, recognizing the importance of staying connected. Newsweek attempted to contact T-Mobile and Verizon for additional comments but did not receive a response by publication time.
What Does SOS Mean on Cell Phones?
When an iPhone shows “SOS” or “SOS Only” in the status bar, it indicates the device is disconnected from its regular carrier network but can still place emergency calls through another available network. This safety measure enables users to reach emergency services like 911, even without normal cell service. Users may see this alert due to poor reception, a carrier outage, or issues with their SIM card or network settings. While in SOS mode, regular calls, texts, and mobile data usually won’t function until the device reconnects with its carrier network.
T-Mobile Outage Map
A map from DownDetector pinpointed major cities suffering the most significant outages. Comments on the site highlighted users experiencing outages in cities such as Seattle, West Sacramento, California, Irvine, California, Albuquerque, Orlando, and St. Louis.
Verizon Outage Map
The Verizon troubles were scattered across the United States, as shown by DownDetector’s tracking over the past 24 hours. The map illustrates areas where disruptions were most concentrated, with reports emerging steadily throughout the day. DownDetector identifies disruptions as noteworthy only when the complaints significantly exceed the usual level for that period, suggesting a genuine service interruption rather than typical variations in user activity.
Expert Insights
Roger Entner, an analyst and the founder of Recon Analytics, which assists telecom and tech companies with strategic issues, shared insights with Newsweek. He noted that a nationwide outage of this magnitude likely pointed to a core network problem. “Localized outages wouldn’t have this reach,” he explained.
“Typically, a software upgrade gone awry would spread through the network, affecting connections,” Entner stated.
He detailed that T-Mobile engineers would likely have spent the initial 10-15 minutes, known as the triage window, identifying the change and working to halt its spread before reversing the actions. Entner emphasized that these networks are now mostly software-based, akin to computers, so they roll back changes to fix issues.
For consumers, distinguishing between localized and core network outages can be challenging given the similar results: disconnected phones and lack of service. Despite these outages occurring infrequently, every carrier experiences them occasionally.
“Every carrier faces outages periodically, though they are rare,” Entner added.
If you have questions or feedback about this story, contact Newsweek editors Samantha Beech, Gray R. Thomas, and Anna Commander.
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