Fixed phone outage for some users in Michigan

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

The cellular outage that affected Verizon customers in Michigan and across the country on Monday has been fully recovered and returned to normal after several hours of outage, the company announced.

“If you continue to experience issues, we recommend that you restart your device,” Verizon said in an email to the Free Press shortly before 8 p.m. “We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We thank you for your patience.”

Verizon customers in the Detroit area reported service issues in the morning as part of a larger, nationwide connectivity issue that the wireless company said began around 9 a.m. and continued for several hours.

Some customers said they couldn't make or receive calls but could send text messages.

In addition to the number of customers reporting problems, Downdetector also offered maps showing where the reports were coming from. The Verizon outages affected the entire Midwest — including Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Omaha and Nebraska, according to its website.

Other major cities with connection problems included Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Phoenix.

What is SOS status?

Many affected phones displayed “SOS Only” or an SOS icon in the phone status bar, meaning the devices were not connected to a cellular network but could still make emergency calls for safety reasons in the United States and Canada.

SOS, today's abbreviation for “emergency”, stood in the days of Morse code for “save our souls” or “save our ship”.

Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed that customers were reporting outages around 9 a.m., and by around 11 a.m. the number of customers rose to over 100,000, although that number had already declined and was nearing 20,000 by 5 p.m.

Later, the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that regulates wireless companies, said on social media that it was “aware that a Verizon outage is impacting customers in parts of the country” and was “working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions.” determine”.

Around 5 p.m., the phone company announced on social media that “engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has begun restoring” and apologized “for any inconvenience some of our customers may have experienced today.”

Verizon outage maps

But just to be safe, Ford Field, where the Lions were scheduled to play the Seahawks, urged fans on social media to access their electronic tickets via Wi-Fi before they arrive and download them to their phone's mobile wallet to ” the smoothest possible entry into the stadium.

Verizon did not provide information about the cause of the outage or the number of customers affected.

Some speculated that the outage mostly affected newer phones.

Search trends showed that many were turning to Google for answers as to why their service was unavailable. And the Downdetector website also pointed out that customers of other carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and US Cellular, also reported service outages around the same time, but in much smaller numbers.

Verizon also offered its own outage map.

To check Verizon's outages, the company says its customers must be logged into the website. However, users should be able to find troubleshooting information, report issues, and receive a ticket number and estimated time to complete the repair.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or [email protected].

What is SOS status?

Verizon outage maps

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