The Day the Phones Went Dead: What the Verizon Outage Revealed About Multifamily Risk

When the Verizon nationwide outage struck on Jan. 14, 2026, millions of mobile users across the country were abruptly cut off from their primary, if not only, means of communication. Notices from emergency agencies made the gravity of this network outage clear. Numerous governmental emergency systems issued warnings that Verizon users could not contact 911, urging them instead to use other carriers, landlines or even go physically to a police or fire station. Others issued similar alerts, noting difficulties placing emergency calls and instructing residents to rely on Wi‑Fi calling or alternate carriers.

As multifamily portfolios become more technologically integrated—and as residents rely almost entirely on mobile devices rather than landlines—communication outages are emerging as a significant risk management issue for multifamily owners and operators. When those failures affect emergency communications, the consequences can include life‑safety risks, leading to operational disruption, regulatory scrutiny and potential legal exposure.

Why outages are riskier in multifamily

Multifamily properties present a unique risk profile during systemwide communication failures. First, residents are often clustered in high‑density environments, meaning a single outage can affect hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously. Second, residents such as seniors, people with disabilities or households with young children may be more vulnerable during medical or safety emergencies. Third, most apartment homes no longer have landlines, leaving residents entirely dependent on wireless service to reach emergency responders.

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The Verizon outage demonstrated how quickly this dependency becomes dangerous. During the outage, emergency agencies explicitly warned that 911 calls from affected devices might not connect.

Compounding the problem, many building systems in apartment communities depend on connectivity. Elevator emergency phones, access control systems, security monitoring, building automation platforms and mass‑notification tools increasingly rely on wireless or IP‑based communications.

Steps owners should take now

To address these risks, rental housing providers should implement a focused set of preparedness measures.

• Build communication redundancy at the property level. Operators should ensure that on-site teams have access to alternative communication tools—such as landlines in leasing offices, multicarrier mobile devices, Wi‑Fi calling capability and two‑way radios—so that staff can coordinate and respond even when cellular networks fail.
• Strengthen life‑safety systems for outage resilience. Elevator emergency phones, fire‑panel communicators and access systems should be equipped with dual‑path or failover connectivity that remains functional during wireless outages. These systems are central to resident safety and, depending on the jurisdiction, required for regulatory compliance.
• Deploy multichannel emergency notification capabilities. Relying on a single communication method is no longer sufficient. Apartment communities should be able to reach residents through multiple channels—text, email, app alerts, lobby signage and public‑address systems—so that critical instructions can still be delivered when one pathway is down.
• Provide residents with clear emergency guidance in advance. Residents should know, before an outage occurs, how to seek help if 911 is unreachable. This includes guidance on using phones on other carriers, Wi‑Fi calling, on-site management offices or physically seeking assistance from first responders.
• Conduct outage‑focused drills and training. Multifamily teams should periodically simulate communication failures and practice manual procedures, ensuring that staff know how to respond without relying on mobile apps, cloud‑based platforms or real‑time connectivity.
• Maintain updated emergency and business‑continuity plans. Emergency plans should explicitly address telecom and cloud outages, assign clear responsibilities and be reviewed and updated regularly.
• Educate residents on personal preparedness. Simple steps, such as enabling Wi‑Fi calling, keeping backup battery packs or maintaining at least one device on a different carrier in larger households, can materially reduce risk during outages.

Managing legal risks for owners

The legal exposure for apartment owners and managers who fail to address these risks is significant. If residents are harmed because they cannot reach emergency services during a foreseeable outage, negligence and wrongful‑death claims become a real possibility. Courts increasingly evaluate whether owners took reasonable steps to mitigate known risks, particularly when those risks implicate life safety.

There are also regulatory and code‑compliance implications. Elevator phones, fire‑alarm communicators and emergency radio systems are regulated components of multifamily buildings. Failures tied to inadequate redundancy or maintenance can trigger violations, fines and mandatory corrective actions.

From a contractual standpoint, residents may assert breach of habitability or lease obligations if essential safety systems fail. Insurance carriers may also scrutinize preparedness measures when evaluating claims, potentially denying coverage where owners cannot demonstrate adequate due diligence. Just as importantly, the absence of documentation—no drills, no training records, no updated emergency plans—can severely weaken an owner’s defense in litigation.

Taking action is essential, but it must be done carefully. Most communication resilience solutions involve third‑party vendors and the terms of their standard contracts always favor the service provider. Multifamily owners should ensure that agreements for backup connectivity, mass‑notification platforms or emergency communications tools include meaningful service‑level standards and default remedies, clear uptime and failover commitments and insurance coverages and indemnifications of owners and managers for losses caused by service failures.

Privacy is another critical consideration. Emergency communication systems often rely on resident contact information and in some cases, personal data that raises related legal concerns. Owners must ensure compliance with applicable privacy laws, limit data use to emergency purposes and require vendors to maintain robust security safeguards.

Finally, upgrades to life‑safety systems may require fire‑marshal approval, inspections or ongoing testing obligations. Failing to account for these requirements can create new compliance issues even as owners attempt to improve resilience.

Pam Rothenberg is a Partner in the Real Estate Practice Group at Womble Bond Dickinson (U.S.) LLP and routinely represents owners and managers of multifamily apartment communities in her commercial real estate practice.