ZDNet: “It’s been a rough 24 hours for Verizon, as one of the largest network operators in the US faced a major outage that generated millions of user reports nationwide. If you’re affected by the loss of cellular connectivity, you may even notice an SOS symbol on the top of your phone screen. It’s an indicator that means your device can only tap into satellite signals to make calls and send texts. In most cases, that’s dialing emergency services like 911, and nothing more..”

• “To stay informed about this outage and future outages, and when service has resumed in your local area, refer to Downdetector’s live tracker. You can also see the latest service updates by address (and, optionally, phone number) through Verizon’s official network status page.”

Update – According to a statement Verizon sent to our sister site Mashable, the cause of the outage was simply a problem with the company’s software. “This was a software issue and we are conducting a full review of what happened,” the company said. “As of now, there is no indication that this was a cyber security issue.” That last bit is important, as some customers took the outage as evidence of some type of cyber attack. While those worries seem to be unfounded, considering the current state of the world, I understand those fears.