A widespread service outage affected Verizon Wireless customers across most of northeastern Pennsylvania during Friday’s winter storm.
Customers began reporting issues with service on Twitter Friday afternoon. Many customers stated they could send and receive texts, but they were unable to make phone calls.
State and local police responded to the outages with posts on social media, telling affected customers that they would have to use a landline to call 911, or if that wasn’t an option, to go to the nearest police or fire station in the event of an emergency.
A Verizon representative told Newswatch 16 the network interruptions centered mainly around Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and the Poconos, and were the result of multiple fiber service outages caused by the storm. Service was restored around 10:45 p.m.
