UPDATE: Verizon late Monday afternoon reported progress in restoring service after a massive outage earlier in the day. Get the latest developments here. Our original story continues below.
Hundreds of Verizon outages were reported across the Chicago area Monday morning, with thousands more nationwide.
According to the website Downdetector, reports of Verizon outages across Chicago began around 7:15 a.m. Monday. By 9:15 a.m., a spike of more than 700 outages were reported in the Chicago area, the webpage showed.
Nationwide, more than 20,000 Verizon outages were reported as of 9:15 a.m. according to the site. By 9:30 a.m., that number had ballooned to more than 70,000, the site showed.
An outage map from Downdetector Monday showed Verizon outages across multiple other cities, including Indianapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Omaha.
Dozens of comments on Downdetector from users said their phones were displaying "SOS" mode on-and-off.
As of 9:30 a.m., Verizon had not posted about the issues on social media. The carrier did reply however to tweets from multiple users reporting problems.
Local
"We understand the importance of staying connected, and would be happy to take a look at what's occurring," several of the replies from Verizon said.
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Verizon did not immediately respond to NBC Chicago's request for comment.
What is SOS mode?
According to Apple, that message appears when "your device isn't connected to your cellular network," but it also means you can make emergency calls through other carrier networks.
The feature is only available in the U.S., Australia and Canada.
"When SOS appears in your iPhone status bar, it means a cellular network is available for emergency calls," the company says.
Those who make a call with SOS will automatically go to a local emergency number and their location will be shared with emergency services.
Users can also set up their phone so that after they make an emergency SOS call, their phone alerts emergency contacts with a text message that includes their current location -- and will update those contacts if that location changes.
"On iPhone 14 or later (all models), you can even use Emergency SOS via satellite to text emergency services when no cellular and Wi-Fi coverage is available," Apple states.
