As one of the leading wireless carriers in the US, it’s not uncommon for Verizon to be facing a controversy almost every other day. Earlier this month, the carrier got into trouble for trying to eliminate loyalty discounts, only to reverse course later. Well, the carrier is in the news again this Labor Day weekend, and not for good reasons.
Several Verizon customers reported network-related issues on Saturday, with the Verizon Support account on X/Twitter later confirming the development, saying it was due to a “software issue.”
As The Verge notes, reports on sites like Down Detector spiked around 3-3:30 PM ET on Saturday. In a follow-up post nearly seven hours later, Verizon reported that the network had been fixed, but not before angering its subscribers.
The worst possible time for a network outage
Comments under a Reddit thread, where thousands of impacted users have chimed in, show that this wasn’t limited to specific regions. Verizon didn’t say exactly what the software issue was, though we hope to gain some clarity on that front in the coming days.
This is the absolute worst-case scenario for anybody traveling on Labor Day weekend, and customers are understandably irate at the lack of communication from Verizon about the incident. Evidently, many have walked into Verizon stores and/or spoken with customer support about the service disruption, but since this was a nationwide outage, there was very little those employees could do apart from promising a quick resumption of service.
It’s unclear if Verizon will try to compensate its customers for the loss of service in some form, though we’re not holding our breath. Not having access to your wireless carrier (especially in an emergency) for hours on end may give users enough reason to switch carriers. However, customers should also be aware that outages aren’t exclusive to just one wireless provider.
Verizon faced a similar network disruption back in September last year, halting service for several users on a busy Monday.
