Verizon may be down, with many users seeing 'SOS' here's everything we know about this potential outage

Date:
Wed, 14 Jan 2026 17:36:48 +0000

Description:
Verizon is experiencing issues as of midday on January 14, 2026, with many users reporting no service and seeing an SOS icon instead of bars. TechRadar is following this story and has reached out to Verizon for more information.

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While Verizon had a good few months, with the last major outage occurring in October 2024 , it seems that the popular United States wireless carrier is having some issues. So, if you're on Verizon and seeing 'SOS' in place of network bars, you're not alone.

Countless users have taken to social platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Threads to shout issues, but reported problems with Verizon have spiked on Down Detector to over 46,000.

We've just reached out to Verizon to ask what's going on with its network,
but in the meantime, we're spinning up a TechRadar live blog to report on
this potential outage as it happens.

The spike is real on Down Detector as of 12:16PM ET there are over 46,000 reported outages and a few of my colleagues who use Veirzon are seeing 'SOS' in place of network bars on there iPhones. (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

For those counting, Down Detector is now at over 90,000 reported issues, with many in the comments noting that on their phones, 'SOS' is appearing instead of network bars. This likely indicates that the device can't reach the cellular network and instead defaults to satellite connectivity, a feature offered by the iPhone and other smartphones.

Here's a look at what that looks like, courtesy of TechRadar's Editor-at-Large, Lance Ulanoff's iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is connected to Verizon's network here in New York City. (Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/live/verizon-outage-january-2026


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