Thousands of Internet users on the U.S. East Coast faced Internet outages on Tuesday (Jan. 26) as providers, including Verizon (also known as Vixen) Communications, abruptly disrupted their networks, indirectly causing services from Google, Amazon, Zoom, Slack and other technology companies to be affected as well.
According to DownDetector, an online pawn tracker, service outage reports from these providers spiked on Tuesday and spread to popular sites such as Google, YouTube and Zoom. The data also showed outage reports from cable operator Comcast Corp., online gaming platform for kids (Roblox Corp) and business communications service Unicorn (Slack Technologies Inc.). The overall problem is concentrated on the East Coast. User comments indicate the outages are widespread.
Network provider Verizon tweeted earlier to alert users that one of its Brooklyn, N.Y.-based fibers was down, but did not provide an estimated Time to fix it. Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company had identified a problem affecting network service quality and estimated the outage to be “throughout the Northeast corridor,” but could already see service starting to be restored.
Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reviewing reports of the outage.
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is working to get to the bottom of this,” tweeted Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairman of the commission. “
Amazon’s Cloud Computing unit said earlier that it was investigating connection problems with an Internet provider that were causing disruptions to AWS services and many online services that rely on the company, Reuters reported. Amazon has announced on its website, however, that connectivity issues related to its services have been resolved.
A Google spokesperson said they were aware of reports of disconnections and inaccessible websites, but found no problems with their service.
According to DownDetector data, users of retail trading platforms Charles Schwab Corp and Robinhood were complaining of problems during trading hours for the second day in a row.
A Charles Schwab spokesperson said, “Earlier this morning, we experienced an issue with bank balances not displaying accurately, which has since been resolved. Trading functionality was not affected.”
Robinhood, for its part, said its customers on the East Coast may have had problems accessing the Internet due to the Verizon service outage, but the platform was still operational.
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