Verizon confirmed a widespread outage across the Northeast on January 16, 2026, affecting millions of customers, citing a software issue as the root cause. The disruption impacted voice, data, and emergency services during peak hours.
- Over 10 million customers impacted across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
- Outage lasted approximately four hours, beginning at 8:17 a.m. EST
- Software configuration error in core network management system cited as root cause
- More than 200 emergency calls delayed in a single NYC dispatch hub
- Verizon’s signaling traffic volume has increased to 1.2 trillion daily events
- Stock dropped 1.8% following the incident
Verizon experienced a major service outage affecting over 10 million customers across New York, New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania on January 16, 2026. The carrier reported that a software configuration error in its core network management system triggered the failure, which disrupted both mobile voice and data services for approximately four hours. Internal logs indicate the issue originated during a routine software update deployed to regional network nodes at 8:17 a.m. EST. The outage coincided with peak weekday commuting hours, leading to widespread disruptions for emergency services, financial transactions, and remote work operations. Multiple 911 call centers reported delays in routing emergency calls, with one New York City EMS dispatch hub logging over 200 delayed responses. Verizon confirmed that no data breaches or physical infrastructure failures were involved. Despite the carrier’s attribution to a software flaw, industry analysts point to systemic challenges within modern telecom networks. The complexity of integrating legacy systems with real-time cloud-based platforms has increased the risk of cascading failures. Verizon’s network now processes over 1.2 trillion daily signaling events, up from 780 billion in 2020, raising the attack surface for configuration errors. Market participants reacted cautiously, with Verizon’s stock dropping 1.8% in early trading, erasing gains from a recent earnings report. Investors are now scrutinizing the carrier’s operational resilience, especially as it prepares to launch its 5G-Advanced network upgrades in 2026. Regulators may also reassess incident reporting requirements for critical communications infrastructure.