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[1] Now, attention all Verizon users: If you're having problems with your cell phone service today, you are not alone.
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[2] A massive outage hit the cellular service provider this morning, with more than 100,000 people across the country reporting issues.
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[3] Some customers are saying their phones were going into SOS mode, which means the phone is not connected to a cellular network.
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[4] Let's get right to NBC News correspondent Maggie Vespa in Chicago. Maggie, what's going on?
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[5] Hey, guys. Well, we really actually don't know what is causing this, as far as what's going on, and that's adding, as you can imagine, to the frustration for a lot of people, including people on our own staff here at NBC Chicago Bureau.
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[6] Some of our producers, their phones were hit by this outage, and they were trying frantically to connect to Wi-Fi and do everything they could to stay in touch.
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[7] I want to show you the outage map. We're doing this from Chicago because our city was one of the hardest hit, but make no mistake, this is nationwide.
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[8] Across the country, you can see some of the hotspots for this outage. We're talking about Seattle, Denver, Omaha, Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago, again in there.
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[9] This started around mid-morning, around 10:00 a.m., and it kind of spiked pretty quickly. It's been tapering off slowly since.
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[10] Verizon released a statement on X, just saying, "We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers." they wrote, "are engaged, and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue."
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[11] So just kind of reiterating, guys, they haven't said if they've figured it out yet, what's causing all this. So, a lot of confusion and a lot of frustration, as you can imagine.
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[12] Yeah, Maggie, so a lot in limbo. Is there anything folks can do in the interim? It sounds like we still don't have a sense of timeline in terms of a resolution.
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[13] We don't have a sense of timeline, but it is worth pointing out it peaked at around 104,000 people reporting the outages. It's now down, at last check, to about 49,000.
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[14] So, if you want to take that into account as far as maybe the rate of recovery, if that continues, it could be a good sign. Beyond that, you're right, we don't have a hard timeline as to when this will be fixed.
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[15] I mean, the main piece of advice, no shocker, Verizon is recommending people connect to Wi-Fi and try, as much as you can, to stay on that to facilitate communication.
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[16] And remember, SOS mode in your phone does let you call emergency services, so you do, guys, have that lifeline even in this outage. - Always important. Maggie Vespa, thank you.