If your phone is suddenly displaying "SOS," "no service," or "emergency calls only" and you're on Verizon's network, it's probably not your phone's fault, and you're certainly not alone. More than 100 ...

Morse code transmits information through sequences of dots, dashes, and spaces, allowing messages to travel long distances ...

If you want to fix the SOS displaying on your phone, here's what to do. But the issue may lie with your carrier.

A massive Verizon outage Jan. 14, downed tens of thousands of Verizon phones, with Verizon customers eager to "fix" SOS mode on iPhones and turn off "Emergency Calls Only" on Samsung/Android phones.

Millions of cell phone users reported a service outage on the morning of Jan. 14.

If your phone is on SOS mode today, there's a reason why. Get updates on the January 2026 Verizon outage.