Verizon confirms ‘intermittent issues’ impacted customer phone calls

Verizon confirmed “intermittent issues” were affecting its network on Friday after New York residents and other East Coast customers noted they were having trouble making or receiving phone calls.

DownDetector, a site that tracks outages, noted a spike in reports beginning around 1 p.m. ET. An outage map showed the reports seemed concentrated along the East Coast, with many originating in the New York and Boston areas.

A Verizon spokesperson said service was restored as of roughly 3 p.m. ET.

“Earlier this afternoon, an intermittent issue prevented some customers from making or receiving phone calls. Our network teams identified and rectified the issue, and all services have been restored,” a Verizon spokesperson said.

It’s still unclear what caused the outage or how many customers are affected.

New York City Councilman Justin Brannan was among the Verizon users who reported issues on Friday afternoon.

“HEADS UP: @Verizon Wireless is experiencing a large cellular outage reportedly affecting east coast mobile device calls. Text messages seem to be working but issues making/receiving calls,” Brannan wrote on Twitter.

The company acknowledged reported issues while responding to Twitter users who said they were experiencing problems.

“We are starting to hear some chatter about some issues in this area. We are gathering some more details,” a Verizon representative said in response to Brannan.

In New Jersey, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office also noted an outage.

“Verizon is experiencing a cellular outage affecting mobile devices. For emergency calls send Text to 911 if you cannot call,” the sheriff’s office tweeted.