Verizon is still investigating the problem, but it apparently involved a card in a router in New York City that failed, according to Verizon spokesman John Bonomo. The problem occurred between about 3:15 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. Eastern time, according to Verizon.

The router was taken offline and traffic seems to have recovered, Bonomo said. Problems seem to have been concentrated around New York City, though they may have been broader, Bonomo said. Verizon had no estimate of the number of customers affected.

The problem seems to have affected users of DSL (digital subscriber line), leased lines and Verizon's FiOS fiber-to-the-premises service, according to comments on the North American Network Operators Group mailing list, as well as on Twitter.

Around 4:30 p.m. Eastern, Verizon Senior Vice President Eric Rabe posted on Verizon's that the carrier's engineers were aware of the problem and working on it. About 15 minutes later, Verizon said a peering router between its network and the Internet for the Northeast, which handled traffic for DSL and FiOS, had failed. The router has been restarted and is now handling traffic, Verizon said.