AT&T and T-Mobile Reassure Customers Amidst Verizon Outage

Verizon’s wireless network was hit with a massive outage beginning around noon on Wednesday—one that prompted more than 178,000 users to file service reports within a single 15-minute period. It’s a nightmare situation for the telecommunications giant, and one that its competitors have seized upon. 

Within just a few hours of Verizon’s service problems making headlines, both T-Mobile and AT&T had a message for their customers: our service is working—but theirs is not.

T-Mobile was the first to take aim. At 2:28 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the wireless carrier posted a message to its X account:

“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected,” the company wrote. “However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.”

T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected. However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.

— T-Mobile (@TMobile) January 14, 2026

Just 31 minutes later, at 2:59 p.m. ET, AT&T weighed in on the drama and made a bold play to scoop up some Verizon customers in the process. 

“Our network? Solid,” the company wrote on X. “If you’re experiencing issues, it’s not us..... it’s the other guys. Some things are just out of our hands!” They concluded their message with a link to a free trial and one final note: “BUT if you're interested in giving us a try…”

Our network? Solid. If you’re experiencing issues, it’s not us.....it’s the other guys. Some things are just out of our hands! - BUT if you're interested in giving us a try - https://t.co/xftQXpUcjw

— AT&T (@ATT) January 14, 2026

Verizon, of course, had its own message to customers, which essentially translated to: bear with us as we work to make things right.

​​The company issued an official response on Wednesday afternoon, promising customers that, “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
As of 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Downdetector was recording service interruption reports from just over 48,000 Verizon customers—down from a peak of 177,379 at 12:47 p.m. ET. Which indicates that service has been restored to nearly 70 percent of the affected accounts.