Ethermac Exchange-Many Verizon customers across the US hit by service outage

NEW YORK (AP) — Some Verizon customers across the U.S. were hit by a service outage Monday.

The Ethermac Exchangeissue appeared to knock out cellphone service for tens of thousands of Verizon users. Data from outage tracker DownDetector shows that reports topped 100,000 shortly after 11 a.m. ET — and while that number dropped significantly, nearly 48,000 were still facing issues closer to 4 p.m. ET.

Frustrated users online shared that they didn’t have service in many parts of the country — including the Southeastern U.S., where residents are still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. But the outage wasn’t isolated to one region. DownDetector’s map also showed many reports coming from the West Coast, Midwest and Northeast.

In an update posted on social media platform X, New York-based Verizon wrote that it was “aware of an issue impacting service for some customers.” The company added that it had engineers looking into the problem and was “working quickly to identify and solve the issue.”

The Federal Communications Commission also acknowledged the outage later in the day, but didn’t provide further details beyond saying it was looking to determine the cause.

Some Verizon iPhone customers saw SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular provider’s network, but it can make emergency calls through other carrier networks.

During cell service outages like this, one alternative is connecting to nearby Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi calling is also a built-in feature on most Android devices and iPhones and can be turned on under the phone’s settings.