Can You Hear Me Now? Verizon Wireless Restores Service

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile phone operator, said engineers had restored 4G data service after the second disruption this month.

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE service was returning to normal this morning after company engineers worked to resolve an issue with the 4G network during the early morning hours today, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based carrier didn't disclose the nature of the repairs.

Users began reporting a lack of 4G data connections on their phones and sporadic 3G service early today, said Thomas Pica, a company spokesman. Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE Community forum shows users in Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New York said they lost service.

The company, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc, had a 4G LTE service disruption of almost 24 hours starting on Dec. 7. Verizon Wireless said that by the evening of Dec. 8 service was fully restored after a "network operations team resolved a technical issue.

A quick look at Verizon's support forums illustrates the extent of the data outage had not only struck the New York area but has also hit California, Illinois, Washington D.C., Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and other regions.

One person commented on Verizon's forums: "I'm in Denver, CO. Service went out at 1am MST - it's 5am MST and still no data."  Another said: "Not getting any data in Port Townsend, WA. I have tested on both a Galaxy Nexus and a Droid RAZR. Have done the whole rebooting thing, still nothing. Thankfully I'm at home and have wifi."

A few 4G users said they'd been able to get onto the data network by switching down to CDMA. Some people who had gotten through to Verizon phone support say the company was aware of the issue but has yet to resolve it.

"Just spoke with VZW customer support representative," wrote one commenter. "As of 6:28 AM Eastern time, they are confirming a nationwide outage affecting all 4G phones, and to expect little to no network connectivity. There is no ETA for resolution, of course."

The folks at tech news site The Verge say that they spoke with a Verizon support rep who confirmed the outage but wasn't allowed to discuss the details with the press.

Similar to the last failure, this outage didn't seem affect everyone and some lucky users reported that their data service had been restored.

This second failure comes at an unfortunate time for Verizon customers looking to renews their contracts with "Big Red" who until recently, have had relatively consistent 4G service since the service launched approximately this time last year. Now, customers have had to deal with two major data outages in one month.

Verizon did not publicly acknowledge the problem earlier although their @VZWSupport Twitter account has just started fielding customer complaints about the outage.

Did you experience a problem with your Verizon Wireless phone this morning?