00:00Verizon Wireless customers across the country were slammed by a massive network outage,
00:05knocking tens of thousands of phones into SOS mode,
00:09and left users unable to make calls, send texts, or access mobile data.
00:14The disruption began surfacing shortly after 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and rapidly escalated,
00:21with outage tracking site down-detector logging more than 113,000 reports at its peak
00:27as complaints poured in from coast to coast.
00:30Verizon acknowledged the outage, saying it was aware of an issue impacting service for some customers
00:35and that engineers were working to resolve it.
00:38Rival carriers T-Mobile and AT&T piled on as Verizon struggled through the massive nationwide outage,
00:46telling customers its own network was operating normally while pointing the finger at its battered competitor.
00:52T-Mobile's network is keeping our customers connected,
00:55and we've confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected.
01:01However, due to Verizon's reported outage,
01:04our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon's service at this time.
01:08AT&T urged customers to consider signing up for its service.
01:12Our network? Solid.
01:14The company's Instagram post read,
01:16If you're experiencing issues, it's not us, it's the other guys.
01:20Some things are just out of our hands,
01:22but if you're interested in giving us a try,
01:25even Krispy Kreme jumped on the bandwagon,
01:27announcing it will be handing out the sweet backup plan to all customers during Verizon's nationwide network outage.
01:36SOS got you down?
01:37We can hear you now and we're serving up,
01:40the popular donut company wrote on Instagram.
01:42Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday,
01:46Krispy Kreme will be doling out one free original glazed donut to each customer
01:51because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.
01:55The disruption, which affected major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C.,
02:02started Wednesday morning and spread coast to coast.
02:05The phone and internet company has not announced a cause or timeline for full restoration.
02:09Scattered reports suggested service was beginning to return for some,
02:14while many others were still waiting.
