Widespread Outages Hit Microsoft and Verizon Users
▼ Summary
– Microsoft experienced a major Azure outage due to capacity loss in its Azure Front Door content delivery network, disrupting cloud services and the Azure Portal.
– The Azure disruption caused a ripple effect, leading to widespread outages in Microsoft 365 services including Teams and Outlook, hindering business communication and productivity.
– Verizon faced a nationwide service disruption in the U.S., affecting mobile voice, text, and 5G home internet services, with customers reporting SOS indicators on their devices.
– Both companies attributed the outages to technical issues—Microsoft to crashing Kubernetes instances and Verizon to a software problem—and worked to restore services.
– The simultaneous outages highlight the global reliance on key technology and communication providers and the extensive impact when their systems fail.
A challenging day unfolded for technology and communication services as both Microsoft and Verizon experienced significant outages, disrupting workflows and personal connectivity for countless users. The microsoft outage today affected its core cloud infrastructure, leading to a cascade of problems across its popular productivity suite. Simultaneously, a widespread verizon outage left customers across the United States struggling with mobile and internet services.
Decoding the Microsoft Azure Disruption
Early on Thursday, October 9, 2025, reports surged on platforms like downdetector about a major microsoft azure outage. The root cause was identified as a significant capacity loss in Azure Front Door (AFD), Microsoft’s content delivery network. This initial azure outage, which began around 07:40 UTC, primarily impacted users in Europe and Africa, preventing access not just to cloud services but also to the Azure Portal itself.
This created a ripple effect, leading to a substantial microsoft 365 outage. Users soon found themselves asking, “is teams down?” and “is outlook down?” The answer was a frustrating yes. The teams outage and outlook outage meant that key communication and productivity tools were inaccessible. This microsoft teams outage was particularly disruptive for businesses relying on the platform for daily operations. With the core azure down, many began searching online for “is microsoft down” and “microsoft issues today” to understand the scope of the problem. Microsoft acknowledged the microsoft azure outages were due to underlying Kubernetes instances crashing and confirmed their engineering teams worked to restart them and restore service. While services have largely been restored, the incident highlights the vulnerabilities in interconnected cloud services.
Verizon Customers Face Nationwide Service Loss
As if the microsoft down situation wasn’t enough, Verizon customers also faced a major service disruption. Many users across the U.S., in cities like New York, Chicago, and Seattle, found their phones displaying “SOS” or “Emergency Calls Only.” The issues prompted a flood of reports to down detector, with users wanting to know, “is verizon down?”
The company confirmed it was aware of the issues impacting service and attributed the problem to a software issue. The verizon outage affected mobile voice, text, and 5G home internet services. Frustrated customers took to social media to voice their concerns. To get a better sense of the affected areas, many searched for a verizon outage map. Verizon has since stated that the service is largely restored but advised customers who are still experiencing problems to restart their devices or toggle airplane mode.
The dual outages from two of the world’s largest tech and telecom companies serve as a stark reminder of the global reliance on a handful of core service providers and the widespread impact when these systems falter.
