When Verizon had an outage on Wednesday, January 14, it prompted responses from its main competitors later that day, with comments on the Verizon vs. AT&T outage.  

The AT&T network stated in a social media post, “Our network is solid. If you’re experiencing issues, it’s not us… It’s the other guys. Some things are just out of our hands.”  

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

Later that day, Verizon apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage and reaffirmed its commitment to quickly restoring service to affected customers.  

Earlier that day, Verizon began experiencing a major outage, leaving many customers nationwide unable to make calls, send texts, or use data services on their mobile devices.   

As the outage unfolded, one of Verizon’s main competitors used social media to confirm that its network was operating normally.  

This is precisely what T-Mobile is doing.  

T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed it’s operating normally as expected, the company said in a post on X. However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone on Verizon service at this time.  

Many top replies to T-Mobile’s posts are from Verizon customers expressing interest in switching carriers.  

Ice-cold replied on X in response to T-Mobile’s post.  

T-Mobile’s post addresses aspects beyond Verizon’s service status.  

During the Verizon outage, some customers from other carriers, including T-Mobile and AT&T, also reported difficulties making calls or sending texts to Verizon users. Down Detector recorded a spike in complaints for multiple wireless providers linked to the Verizon outage.  

According to T-Mobile, its network was operating normally. Many T-Mobile customers likely experienced problems connecting calls or sending texts to Verizon users, which could have led some to incorrectly believe T-Mobile’s own network was down.  

And while T-Mobile’s comments were pointed, the statement was necessary to shed light on the matter.  

T-Mobile network operators emphasize that the January 2026 Verizon outage is likely to be the last. Customers of other carriers, such as AT&T or T-Mobile, are not immune to similar disruptions.  

What customers should know is that expecting modern mobile networks to function around the clock, around the air like water, power, or gas isn’t practically possible, said Octavio Garcia, Forrester analyst and mobile industry veteran. The infrastructure involved (cell phone towers and, as in Verizon’s case, software) is not immune to unforeseen outages caused by multiple factors.  

Experts agree that this outage was particularly severe for Verizon customers because it affected their ability to make emergency calls.  

The only comparable incident in recent years was the AT&T outage of February 2024, which lasted about 11 hours and resulted in 92 million failed calls, including 25,000 to 911.  

This outage feels like a bigger deal, says Alex Besen, a 30-year veteran of the mobile data industry and now CEO of the Besen Group. In 2024, many customers experienced intermittent data and SMS connectivity. This outage took down voice and data simultaneously and left phones stuck in SOS mode.  

Verizon Experienced A Core Failure 

The AT&T outage was eventually traced to one employee running a network update that was wrongly configured. This one, Besen says, was more of a core failure, a software issue that so blindsided the company that Verizon couldn’t confirm it was dealing with one for the majority of the outage.  

A full investigation is needed to compare the Verizon outage with previous incidents. It also remains to be seen whether the significant layoffs at Verizon in November contributed to the situation.  

It is possible that among 13,000 former employees, including at least one network engineering project manager, someone possessed the institutional knowledge necessary to prevent such a software-driven outage.  

Meanwhile, data from DownDetector, a user-reported outage platform, suggests that the Verizon outage was more severe than the AT&T incident.  

The 2024 outage DownDetector recorded a peak of 74,000 concurrent outage reports from AT&T customers within a 15-minute window, with numbers beginning to decline by 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.  

In comparison, on January 14, 2026, DownDetector reported a peak of 178,000 concurrent outage reports from Verizon customers at 12:45 PM ET during the East Coast’s peak daytime hours. Verizon Stores are currently experiencing significant challenges.  

For Verizon, the SOS message was horribly inappropriate and potentially ongoing as aggrieved customers consider whether $20 is sufficient compensation. Many may follow through on their promise to cancel their contracts altogether. This might well stand for Save Our Stores!  

Verizon will face brand reputation issues and possible customer churn over the next six to nine months, Forrester analyst Octavio Garcia told Mashable.  

One way to shorten churn time is to implement something similar to the AT&T Guaranty, a mobile industry first launched in January 2025, just under a year after the great AT&T outage, the company says. It delivers automatic compensation: one full free day of service if your wireless goes out for an hour or more. This varies, and its competitors are monitoring how many customers may leave. This is a limited benefit: a smaller but more satisfied customer base.   

Losing customers over network reliability issues would almost certainly hurt Verizon in the short term, even if it slightly reduces network load, says Besen.