Verizon outage on US East Coast

On By Littum

On November 12, Verizon Fios reported that millions of people on the East Coast of the United States lost access to the Internet early Tuesday. Local news outlets also shared this information, confirming the widespread internet outage.

Verizon Fios is a service in the United States that provides high-speed Internet, television, and telephone connections using fiber optic cables. As of September 30, 2024, Verizon Fios had approximately 7.1 million Internet subscribers in the United States.

Millions of Verizon Fios customers on the East Coast lost internet early Tuesday morning, causing major disruptions.

Areas Affected by Verizon’s Internet Outage

A map from Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, shows the affected area stretching about 300 miles from Philadelphia to Richmond, Virginia. According to the problem map on the Downdetector website, the affected area stretches about 300 miles (about 480 kilometers) from Philadelphia across Pennsylvania to Richmond, Virginia.

According to media, these are the affected areas: Here is a mixed list of affected areas:

  • Fairfax
  • Arlington
  • Norfolk
  • LaGrange
  • Henrico County
  • Philadelphia
  • Annandale
  • Washington
  • Maple Shade
  • Ashburn
  • Baltimore
  • San Antonio
  • Cherry Hill
  • Falls Church
  • Miami
  • Alexandria
  • Lewes
  • Raleigh
  • Silver Spring
  • Sewell

…and 16 other cities.

Verizon statement

In a tweet on X (formerly known as Twitter), Verizon stated that “a service outage or network maintenance” is occurring and that “we do not yet have all the details” regarding the issue.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Our network team is working to gather all the information so we can provide an update,” the company, the largest wireless carrier in the country, said.

Local media reported that reports of service outages increased from midnight Monday to early Tuesday morning, with thousands of complaints logged during this period.

Of these complaints, 90% were about Internet services, 9% were labeled “total outage” and 1% involved broadcast TV issues. Down detector shows that in addition to the east coast, there is also an outage affecting southern Kansas.

Verizon Fios, which is Verizon’s fiber optic service for Internet, TV and phone, is one of the affected services. Other major ISPs, such as AT&T, Cox and Xfinity, also had multiple outage reports during this time, according to Downdetector.

How to prepare for a communication failure

Losing internet and phone service can be really frustrating, but there are ways to be prepared should it happen again. If you were affected by the AT&T outage, here are some simple tips to help you be prepared next time:

  • Has backup power settings: Make sure power banks are charged to keep your devices running during a power outage. You may also want to invest in solar chargers for longer power outages.
  • Save important information offline: Download any information you need daily. Google Maps allows you to use offline navigation to saved areas. Store digital copies of important documents on your device and print them for easy access.
  • Use other ways to communicate: There are apps such as Zello and Bridgefy that works over Wi-Fi even if regular phone service is down.
  • Keep emergency contacts written down: Just like people did before cell phones, keep a small notebook with important phone numbers. Write down numbers for family, close friends, work, neighbors and emergency services. These switches can be very useful during a power outage.
  • Stock up on basic supplies: Keep a supply of essentials such as food, water, medicine and first aid supplies as access to resources may be limited during prolonged power outages. Also consider a battery-operated or hand-crank radio to keep you informed.
  • Make a plan with your community: Talk to your family and friends about how to reconnect if you get separated. Let your children know where to wait for you or who to call for help if the phones don’t work for a while. Choose a meeting point and choose someone outside your area to check in with if local network goes down.
  • Get a landline phone: Traditional landline phones plugged into a wall outlet are more likely to work during power outages. In the last major outage, only 13% of these types of phones had problems.