iPhone SOS: Verizon Experiences Major Outage Across the U.S. [Update: Fixed]

Verizon is currently experiencing a major outage that is affecting many customers across the U.S., including iPhone users. Affected users may be unable to send or receive phone calls, send or receive text messages, or use cellular data.

As a result of the network being down, many affected iPhone users are seeing "SOS" displayed in their device's status bar. In a support document, Apple says that an iPhone displays "SOS" when the device is not connected to a network, but it should still be possible to make emergency calls in the U.S., Australia, and Canada.

In a statement, Verizon said it is "aware of an issue impacting service for some customers" and working to identify and implement a fix.

With any iPhone 14 model or newer, you can use Apple's helpful Emergency SOS via satellite feature to text emergency services when you are in a supported area in the U.S. that lacks cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.

Update 5:00 p.m Eastern Time: Verizon has started restoring service for customers, though it could take some time for the carrier to resolve the issue for all users.

Update 7:18 p.m. Eastern Time: Verizon says the outage has been fully addressed, and all VZW customers should now have service.