Verizon customers were left without cell service on Monday as one of the nation’s largest telecom networks went dark.
Verizon Communications experienced a massive outage, causing significant disruptions in major cities across the country.
According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks outages through user-submitted reports, over 100,000 incidents of service disruptions were reported.
However, many are speculating that millions of Verizon users were actually impacted, with widespread reports of individuals unable to make phone calls, send text messages, or access the internet.
Apple users, in particular, were left in “SOS mode,” meaning they were completely cut off from communication.
The outage affected major cities such as Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Indianapolis, Seattle, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Saint Louis, and Los Angeles.
Verizon’s failure to quickly address the issue has only added to the frustration. Despite the nationwide chaos, the company has yet to release a formal public statement.
In a brief statement to Time, a spokesperson for Verizon offered little more than the standard corporate line: “We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged, and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue.”
The outage comes after Verizon reached a deal to sell mobile towers to infrastructure firm Vertical Bridge.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) did not provide any comments regarding the outage.
According to the news release:
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) and Vertical Bridge today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for Vertical Bridge to obtain the exclusive rights to lease, operate and manage 6,339 wireless communications towers across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from subsidiaries of Verizon for approximately $3.3 billion, including certain commercial benefits.
The transaction is structured as a prepaid lease with upfront proceeds of approximately $2.8 billion in cash.
Under the terms, Verizon will enter into a 10-year agreement1 to lease back capacity on the towers from Vertical Bridge, serving as the anchor tenant, with options that could extend the lease term up to 50 years.
Verizon will also have access to certain additional space on the towers for its future use, subject to certain restrictions.
This agreement, along with Verizon’s existing build-to-suit joint venture with Vertical Bridge, will support Verizon’s efforts to drive down tower-related costs and provide greater vendor diversity in a concentrated industry.
