Widespread Verizon outage reported on East Coast

Users reported widespread Verizon internet outages from Washington, D.C., to Boston on Tuesday.

Verizon said on Twitter that it attributed the outage to “a fiber cut in Brooklyn.” Verizon has not given a timeframe for when the issue would be resolved.

There is a fiber cut in Brooklyn. We have no ETR, as of yet. You can use the MY Fios app for updates. *EAG

— Verizon Support (@VerizonSupport) January 26, 2021

The number of problems reported on Downdetector spiked to more than 22,000 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Seventy-one percent of reported problems are related to landline internet. The areas reporting the most issues are Brooklyn, Baltimore, Philadelphia, D.C., Pittsburgh, New York City and Northern Virginia’s Arlington and Alexandria. It is not clear if the fiber cut is what caused the whole outage. 

Acting Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote on Twitter that the internet outages are being investigated by the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.

Those in the area of the Verizon outage have also reported issues with other online services, including Google, YouTube and Slack.

Some service had been restored to users on the East Coast, a Verizon spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday afternoon, but many were still experiencing issues from the outage.

Amazon noted that its network and online services aren’t causing the outage, The Associated Press reported. 

“We are investigating connectivity issues with an internet provider, mainly affecting the East Coast of the United States, outside of the (Amazon Web Services) Network,” the company said. “We are investigating the issue with the external provider.”

Slack said in a statement they were aware of the issue.

“We’re aware of and monitoring an internet service issue that could impact East Coast users’ internet connection and ability to use Slack. This trouble seems to be isolated to the East Coast of the United States,” Slack said. 

A Google spokesperson said they had gotten reports of issues with access to some of its products “but have not found issues with our services. We’re continuing to investigate.”

Updated: 4:26 p.m.