“We’re aware of intermittent issues that are preventing some customers from making or receiving phone calls,” Verizon spokesman Andrew Testa said in an email. “Our network teams are in the process of restoring service as quickly as possible.”
The number of reported Verizon outages started spiking around 1 p.m. Eastern time Friday and grew to more than 14,000 outages by 2:14, according to Downdetector. About 85 percent of them affected mobile phone service, as opposed to Internet.
Dozens of people on social media described Verizon phones as unable to send or receive calls in Eastern U.S. states including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey.