Following Verizon’s disruptive and widespread service outage in JanuaryThe Federal Communications Commission is asking affected customers to report their experiences by March 16.

the FCC inspectionwhich began on January 28, “invites interested parties to provide all relevant information about the effects of the outage, especially on 911 calls and public safety.” As CNET’s sister site Mashable reports (and cited in the FCC announcement), the outage appears to have prevented emergency calls from connecting.

On January 14, Verizon’s cellular and broadband networks went offline for at least 10 hours and affected nearly 2 million customers. For many, their phones only display “SOS” instead of the regular cellular connection bars, even when the network is back online. So far the company has not released a cause other than a “software issue,” although some telecommunications experts believe it is a bad update affecting Verizon’s 5G SA (Standalone) core, based on the characteristics of the outage.

Customers can describe their experiences by email at [email protected] or use the The FCC’s official electronic comment system. the PDF The public notice also includes instructions for filing by paper via US Postal Service mail or hand delivery.

Credits are offered, but are they enough?

As compensation, Verizon is offering a $20 credit to affected people, via text messages and notifications in the My Verizon app. Credits for $5 also offered to customers of Visible, a virtual operator owned by Verizon.

At the time, the company said in a statement, “This credit is not intended to make up for what happened. No credit can be made. But it is a way to recognize the time of our customers and show that it is important to us.” Based on the angry reports I’ve seen Redditthat token amount is not enough for some people. PCMag reports that some people do negotiate credits up to $200but that requires contacting customer service directly and justifying a legitimate reason for increasing the amount.

Although the FCC’s investigation appears to be most interested in the effects on emergency services of the outage, it also sought comments on how Verizon communicated and reacted. Some of the questions in the public notice include, “Was Verizon’s public communication about the outage accurate, timely, and effective? What effect did the outage have on businesses and providers of critical services, such as hospitals? What effect did the outage have on consumers’ ability to contact emergency services, ability to contact family members, and personal activities?”

Not surprisingly, scammers run credit phishing scams by sending texts that look legitimate but contain phishing links, according to LifeHacker reports. As always, we encourage you to be vigilant and learn how to know if the links are really spam.