Despite the Verizon outage, emergency services in the Bay Area are continuing to operate as usual

Business and emergency services in the Bay Area continued operations largely as usual Monday due to a nationwide Verizon outage that affected phone service from coast to coast.

More than 100,000 people across the country reported problems with their Verizon phone service on Monday, with the peak of reports occurring between 8 and 9 a.m., according to Downdetector, a service that monitors technology outages. Verizon announced Monday afternoon that services were coming back online, but the company did not confirm how many of its more than 110 million customers in the U.S. were affected.

“We live and die by our phones,” said Rob Enderle, a technology analyst. A failure “represents a fairly significant burden.”

San Jose police received no reports that 911 calls were affected by the outage, a spokesman said. Both the Oakland Police Department and the San Francisco Police Department also reported there were no communication issues.

The San Jose Fire Department uses FirstNet for calls, which is powered by AT&T, so its communications system had “minimal impact,” a department representative said.

In addition to the emergency call systems that are still active, it is also possible for phones without service to make emergency calls.

“If you are a Verizon customer and are unable to make calls, you should still be able to call 911 as long as your phone can connect to another wireless provider. Your phone may say “emergency calls only” or “SOS,” the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said.

If your phone still cannot make a call, the Department of Emergency Management recommends connecting to a Wi-Fi network to use Wi-Fi calling, using a landline or Internet phone, or trying another one a family member or friend to reach your telephone provider to make the call for you.

Enderle added that an outage at this time of year, when major weather events occur simultaneously, can be dangerous.

An outage of this magnitude “can be incredibly damaging to government operations, from the military to ensuring police arrive on time in a major disaster,” he said.

The main impact of the outage would be from a commercial perspective, said Tim Bajarin, a technology consultant, but that would largely be a “nuisance” with possible workarounds.

“Many companies are not prepared for this and are therefore looking for alternative contact options,” says Enderle.

Bajarin said most businesses – even small ones – have internet access, providing a variety of calling alternatives to those facing outages. The only businesses that would be significantly affected would be those that rely on transactions that take place in places without Wi-Fi, such as a farmers market, he added.