Massive Verizon outage that left hundreds without data service was linked to cut fiber optic cable
Millions of Verizon users faced temporary disruption after a fiber optic cable cut left customers without service across multiple U.S. cities.
On Monday afternoon, October 6, Verizon users in Grand County, Colorado, first began experiencing widespread disruptions to mobile and internet services. The outage lasted until Tuesday evening, leaving many residents without connectivity for over 24 hours.
A Verizon spokesperson, as per a Sky-Hi report, confirmed that the cause of the disruption was a cut fiber optic cable. Liz Geraldi, Senior communications manager for Verizon, was quoted as saying, “If these cables are cut, it can impact service for some customers.”
Geraldi added that Verizon does not own the fiber in the Grand County area, hence “the timeline for restoring service depends on how quickly the third-party vendor can complete repairs”.
National outage early Thursday
The Grand County issue was followed by a separate national outage reported by Verizon users in the early hours of Thursday, October 9. Customers across major US cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago, Seattle, Phoenix, and Atlanta, reported losing coverage around midnight ET, reported Newsweek.
Newsweek report cited Downdetector, which monitors service disruptions, data of outages surged at 12:56 am ET with 1244 complaints filed. By 3:14 am ET, reports had dropped to just 22, indicating that most services were back online.
Also read: Verizon outage across US leaves hundreds of users without data service, blackout under investigation
Impact on customers and businesses
One of the largest mobile and broadband providers in the United States, Verizon had 146.1 million wireless retail connections and also over 10 million broadband customers as of the middle of the year 2025. Even though the outage occurred in the early morning hours, the outage itself, to some extent, caused less disruption to business operations, households, and emergency communications, as the timing of the outage was not during the day when everyone was awake and busy.
According to the information from Downdetector, 51 percent of the complaints were about mobile phone service, while 32 percent were concerning 5G home internet connections.
What happens next
By 4 am ET on Thursday, service levels were mostly back to normal, as per the reports by Downdetector. As yet, Verizon has not provided a thorough account explaining whether the nationwide outage was due to fiber cable damage.
With the dependency on mobile and broadband services for work, education, and safety increasing, the users who were affected by the outages are now demanding more transparency from the service providers, just as a few years ago when similar situations occurred.
FAQs
Q1. What caused the Verizon outage this week?
The outage was caused by a cut fiber optic cable in Grand County, Colorado, according to Verizon.
Q2. Which areas were affected by the outage?
The outage initially affected Grand County but was later reported nationwide, hitting major U.S. cities such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Atlanta.
Q3. How long did the outage last?
The Grand County outage lasted over 24 hours, while the nationwide disruption early Thursday was largely resolved within three hours.
