Chairman Garbarino Requests Briefings from Verizon, FCC Following Nationwide Outage

WASHINGTON, D.C. --Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino (R-NY) sent letters to Verizon and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking additional information after a nationwide outage left many customers without the ability to call or text for several hours.

In the letter, Chairman Garbarino expressed serious concerns over the scope and duration of the disruption, noting that the outage raises significant questions about the resilience of Verizon's network and the security of communications relied upon by millions of Americans. More than 40,000 public safety agencies utilize Verizon's network.

Chairman Garbarino wrote, "Verizon is the largest mobile network in the United States, and this outage affected tens of thousands of customers, including components of the federal government, with more than 2.3 million outage reports. The scale and duration of the outage raises serious concerns and questions regarding the strength and security of the Verizon network. These concerns include reliability for emergency services and impact on both state and federal government operations. As of today, Verizon has yet to provide a public explanation regarding the cause of the outage."

Read the full letter to Verizon here and the FCC here.

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