Is Verizon still down? Many continue to face SOS issue even as network recovers

Verizon restored service in most areas, but 38,000+ users still report outages and SOS mode issues as of 8:31 p.m. ET.

The massive outage with mobile network service provider Verizon on Wednesday was restored in most locations within a few of hours of the outage first breaking out. However, many continue to face network issues.

Verizon Corp. signage on the floor of the NYSE in New York on Dec 31. (Bloomberg)

As of 8:31 p.m. ET, more than 38,000 Verizon users across the United States are still reporting that their network is not operating and the outage persists.

At the time of this writing, 38,479 Verizon users are reporting that they are still facing an outage. Most of the reports continue to be with the SOS mode error caused by no signal on the Verizon service.

Here's the outage graph of Verizon on Down Detector, a platform that tracks outages live based on users' reports.

More than 38,000 users are still reporting an outage with Verizon. (Down Detector)

More Than 1.5 Million Affected

USA Today reported that more than 1.5 million Verizon customers were impacted by the nationwide outage. Most of the outage seemed to be concentrated on the East Coast, with New York City, where Verizon Communications is headquartered, reporting the outage most.

The outage started around 12:30 p.m. ET and peaked around 1:15 p.m. ET with around 185,000 users reporting on Down Detector alone. Verizon responded said engineers are working to identify and fix the issue. No further updates have been provided since on the X account of Verizon Support - the official handle of Verizon's customer service.

"We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers," The tatement read. “We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible.”