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ZDNET's key takeaways
- The FCC wants your story about the January 14 Verizon outage.
- The Commission has set up a special email address for reports.
- The outage affected millions of customers.
If you were affected by the Verizon outage earlier this month that took down the company's network for most of a day, the Federal Communications Commission wants to hear from you.
In a document released earlier this week, the FCC explained that its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau was officially investigating the outage and was seeking information from frustrated customers, particularly those who tried to call 911 or other public safety numbers but couldn't.
The January 14 incident left millions of customers with an SOS message on their screens and unable to make calls or send texts for about 10 hours. Verizon blamed the problem on a software issue and offered customers a $20 credit for their trouble (though some people reportedly were able to push for, and receive up to $200).
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To better understand how the outage impacted people and how Verizon responded, the FCC wants to know whether you were unable to make or receive calls, whether you could send or receive text messages, how long your service was down, and whether any harm or injury resulted from being unable to reach 911. It also wants you to detail how you learned about the outage, what effect it had on your personal or business life, and whether you feel Verizon's public communication about the outage was appropriate, timely, and effective.
How to complain to the FCC about your Verizon outage
The FCC has set up a dedicated email address for this outage. To tell your story, send a message to VerizonOutage2026@fcc.gov with as much detail as possible about what happened and what trouble it caused. There isn't a bounty or reward for your report, but your details will become a part of case notes that could lead to an FCC fine for Verizon if it's determined the company didn't handle the outage well or if emergency services calls weren't able to go through. Previous incidents saw fines as high as $1 million.
