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A widespread Verizon outage that began Monday morning was still affecting users hours later, but Verizon said there was "progress" toward restoring calls and texts.
"Verizon engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored," the company posted on social media just after 5 p.m. ET. "We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today. We continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this issue."
The issue seemed to start around 9:30 a.m. Monday. That's when DownDetector.com, which monitors online complaints about technology outages, saw a spike in the number of users reporting problems texting and calling.
Many people reported being stuck in SOS mode on their phone, unable to send messages or place calls.
Verizon's network status website did not appear to be functioning properly Monday morning. (FOX screenshot)
Verizon did not immediately appear to acknowledge any outages on their social media channels, and their network status website could not be loaded. A Verizon spokesperson later confirmed "an issue impacting service for some customers."
"Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue," the spokesperson told FOX Television Stations.
The number of complaints about the Verizon outage had begun to slowly decline on Down Detector just after 12 p.m. ET but then plateaued when many users still had no service on their phones.
As of 5:15 p.m., some users were reporting that their service had been restored.
What is SOS mode?
Starting with the iPhone 14, Apple released a feature that enables users to message emergency services via satellite while outside the range of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, or in times of network outages.
The messages are relayed directly via satellite to dispatchers that accept text messages or to relay centers staffed by specialists who can call for help on the user’s behalf, FOX News reports.
SOS mode will automatically turn off once cellular service is restored.
Google has announced a similar feature would be available starting with the Google Pixel 9.
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How can I make calls and send texts?
As long as they are on an independent wi-fi network, like work or school, Apple iPhone users should still be able to send text messages to other iPhone users using iMessage, which is the default setting for Apple-to-Apple messaging. But they may not be able to text Android phone users.
Both iPhone and Android phones are capable of placing wi-fi calls, using a wi-fi connection rather than a cellular network connection, but some devices and phone plans limit such use.
This is a developing story. Stay with FOX for any updates.
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