Verizon says it has resolved outage issue that led to cellphone service crash

 Verizon cellphone service had been restored by late Wednesday after earlier cellular outages left tens of thousands of customers on Long Island and nationwide without service, according to a post by the carrier on X. 

"If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network," Verizon said in the post about 10:20 p.m. "For those affected, we will provide account credits. Details will be shared directly with customers. We sincerely apologize for the disruption."

As of 10:45 p.m. on Wednesday, there were about 4,000 reports of Verizon outages remaining, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks disruptions to internet, cellphone, social media and other services.

That's down from a high of more than 175,000 outages shortly before 1 p.m., the site shows.

Brooklyn and New York City were among the areas most affected by the service interruptions, according to Downdetector. Other major cities affected included Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Miami and Philadelphia.

Shortly after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Verizon acknowledged outages in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

The cellphone provider updated users via X about 5 p.m., saying its team was "on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue."

The Associated Press reported that affected customers said they saw "SOS" or other messages on their phones indicating they had no service. In cities like New York, warnings were sent out noting that the outage may disrupt 911 calls, urging residents try landlines or a device from another carrier, if available, in case of an emergency, or to visit local police or fire stations in person, the AP said.

When cellular outages occur, some phone carriers urge consumers to try internet calling by connecting to Wi-Fi, according to the AP. If Wi-Fi is also unavailable, a limited number of other options — such as sending messages via satellite on newer iPhones — remain.

Newsday's Robert Brodsky contributed to this story.