Verizon's wireless and broadband users had a tough start to their week. Cellular and its Fios FTTH broadband service suffered outages due to an undisclosed issue raising more questions than answers.
An initial culprit was Hurricane Helene hurricane, which caused extensive damage throughout the Southeastern portion of the United States.
During the height of the hurricane, reports revealed that the wireline fiber Verizon uses to backhaul data and voice traffic from cell sites to the other parts of its wireless network was impacted by several cuts from the high winds, debris and flooding.
Verizon said on Tuesday morning that its wireless and wireline broadband networks were operational. This comes after wireless voice and data services customers across the country after an outage on Monday that left wireless customers without service.
As of Tuesday morning, there were still some reports from Verizon Wireless users of outages, according to Downdetector, but for the most part, service has been restored.
“Verizon engineers have fully restored today’s network disruption that impacted some customers,” the service provider said in a statement on X. “Service has returned to normal levels. If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device. We know how much people rely on Verizon, and we apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your patience.”
Challenging the response
While Verizon says its wireless network is back up and running, inquiring minds want to know what caused the issue.
Meantime, the FCC itself is investigating what was behind the cause of the nationwide outage.
According to a Reuters report, the FCC was "working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions. "
However, Verizon’s response, or lack thereof, about the outage is already drawing ire.
Jason Aten, a tech columnist for Inc. and a Verizon Wireless user, criticized the company for not giving a reason for the outage or indicating whether it has taken steps to prevent a similar issue from happening again.
“The fact that Verizon didn’t explain anything about what happened is incredibly disrespectful of its customers,” he wrote in an opinion column on Tuesday. “I’m sure the company thinks it doesn’t have to say anything because it’s doubtful someone would go through the hassle of switching their mobile service just because of one outage.”
A widespread issue
At the height of Verizon Wireless’ outage, users reported that phones had no service except for SOS mode. SOS mode means a user’s phone has trouble connecting to a wireless network. The one exception is that a phone in SOS mode can still make an emergency 911 call.
Verizon’s nationwide wireless service outage began shortly after 9 a.m. ET on Monday and continued into the evening. At 8 p.m., Verizon told CBS MoneyWatch that its engineers had fully restored the network after a "disruption that impacted some customers."
According to reports in The Verge and Outage.report, outages were reported in several key cities, including Naples and St. Petersburg, Florida; Washington, Atlanta, and over 500 other cities.
According to Downdetector, outage reports peaked at 11 a.m. ET, with over 100,000 outage reports against a baseline of 74. It appears the hardest-hit cities were Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Indianapolis, Seattle, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles.
"We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged, and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue," Verizon posted to X yesterday morning.
Wireline internet impacts
While Verizon’s wireless service was a vital issue, it wasn’t the only service that Hurricane Helene impacted.
Hurricane Helene’s wrath also wreaked havoc on wireline broadband services.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) documented outages across six states, though the hurricane most affected western North Carolina and eastern Georgia.
According to the regulator’s outage site, an estimated 1,004,610 subscribers were without wireline broadband service, with South Carolina and Georgia reporting more than 300,000 affected customers each and North Carolina 200,000.
Although this was a large number, the total figure was down from a high of 1,199,087 on September 28. As of Monday, the FCC said the number of subscribers without wireless service decreased to 886,139.
According to Ookla, Spectrum Internet received over 22,000 user-reported issues along the hurricane's path. Internet connectivity was the top issue reported by its customers (33%).
A Fierce Network report revealed that Charter operates about 90,000 Spectrum out-of-home Wi-Fi access points in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and bordering areas.
Kinetic, Windstream’s consumer broadband internet division, said it received 2,500 customer calls about Internet connectivity problems at (91%). From a regional perspective, Atlanta had the most reports (59%) of issues with Kinetic Internet services.
For related articles, visit the Business Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To stay abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.
