I bought a cheap eSIM for a mobile network different than mine, for this exact scenario and in other cases where my normal carrier doesn't have reception. This one is $24/year on T-Mobile:
I just got a bizarre text and unexpected bill with broken accounting and a 3x charge . It seems to be authentic, but totally illegitimate charges . I called CS and the call crashed due to “technical difficulties “. This is more than a mere service outage . Perhaps a targeted attack ?
The bill seemed to duplicate older charges that were already paid , plus some bogus charges and bogus outstanding balance . Very unusual .
I reset my network settings and updated before realizing this is just an outage. I kept searching “<MY LOCATION> Verizon outage” but did not even consider it could be nationwide. I guess it shows how rare nationwide outages are.