Krispy Kreme cheekily announced it will be handing out the “sweet backup plan” to all customers during Verizon’s nationwide network outage on Wednesday afternoon.

“SOS got you down? We can hear you now — and we’re serving up,” the popular doughnut company wrote on Instagram.

Krispy Kreme is giving out one free doughnut to customers amid the Verizon network outage. Rick Dembow N.Y. POST

Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Krispy Kreme will be doling out one free original glazed doughnut to each customer “because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.”

The doughnut giant’s slick move of “marketing genius,” as praised by fans online, coincides with the nationwide Verizon network outage that forced tens of thousands of users offline Wednesday.

Most major cities in the US were impacted by the outage. Downdetector

The disruption, which affected major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC, started just after 9 a.m. EST and soon spread coast to coast.

Many customers reported total signal loss, failed or spotty calls, and dead data connections, according to Downdetector.

Verizon acknowledged the outage and assured its engineers were “working to identify and solve the issue quickly” in a brief statement to The Post.

“SOS got you down? We can hear you now — and we’re serving up,” Krispy Kreme wrote on Instagram. Stephen Yang

“We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience,” a Verizon spokesperson said.

The phone and internet company has not announced a cause or timeline for full restoration as of Wednesday afternoon. Scattered reports suggested service was beginning to return for some — while many others were still waiting.

T-Mobile, one of Verizon’s primary competitors, mercilessly trolled the network’s meltdown.

“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected. However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time,” the company posted on X.

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Hans Vestberg, the Swedish executive who was pushed out in October, has an ally on the board who insists the departing CEO should still get the bulk of his pay, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Vestberg’s total compensation last year reached $24.16 million, according to SEC filings. That included a $1.5 million base salary plus stock awards and bonuses.

The 59-year-old will serve in an advisory role through October 2026, keeping him on the Verizon payroll for a full year after his ouster.

Hans Vestberg (seen right being interviewed by television host Caroline Hyde in May 2024) was removed as CEO of Verizon by the board of directors last month. AP

He’s eligible for much of his compensation package, worth over $20 million, if he hits certain performance thresholds, The Journal reported.

Verizon lost 7,000 net customers in the third quarter that ended in September, missing Wall Street expectations that it would add 19,000 customers, according to the publication.

The exec, who was appointed CEO of Verizon in 2018 after serving as CEO of Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson, had overseen two straight quarters of customer defections, with a third on the way.

Vestberg’s total compensation last year reached $24.16 million, according to SEC filings. That included a $1.5 million base salary plus stock awards and bonuses. Getty Images for The Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative

T-Mobile, which was bolstered by its $26 billion merger with Sprint, kept taking market share with lower-cost and higher-quality service, according to The Journal.

Investors have felt the pain as Verizon’s stock has fallen 30% over the past five years.

Mark Bertolini, who was installed as Verizon’s new chairman of the board last month, told CNBC the poor results necessitated a change.

“Verizon has gone from number one in market cap, bond ratings and market share to number three,” Bertolini told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“So losing 30% share over the last eight years is an issue, and we have to do something different.”

The board tapped Dan Schulman, the former PayPal CEO who’d been serving as Verizon’s lead independent director since 2018, to take over immediately. AP

The board “needed to act, and we acted,” Bertolini said.

When Vestberg took over as CEO in 2018, he pursued a strategy focused on building out Verizon’s 5G network. The company spent more than $50 billion on spectrum to support 5G service, according to The Journal.

Vestberg also spearheaded Verizon’s acquisition of TracFone, the prepaid cellular provider, and the roughly $20 billion purchase of Frontier, a fiber-internet provider, The Journal reported.

But those moves haven’t paid off as intended, as Verizon kept losing wireless customers to rivals AT&T and T-Mobile.

The board finally ran out of patience with Vestberg at a September meeting in Texas, people familiar with the matter told The Journal.

Vestberg has an ally on the board who insists the departing CEO should still get the bulk of his pay, according to the Wall Street Journal. REUTERS

The body tapped Dan Schulman, the former PayPal CEO who’d been serving as Verizon’s lead independent director since 2018, to take over right away.

Schulman doesn’t appear to have much time to turn around the company. The 67-year-old’s contract, which runs through 2027, calls for a $1.5 million base salary plus stock awards worth tens of millions tied to the company’s performance, the Journal reported.

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Schulman is planning cost cuts that are likely to result in the reduction of about 15,000 jobs, The Journal reported Thursday. Verizon currently employs about 100,000 people.

A source familiar with the situation told The Post that the 15,000 figure is “in the ballpark” and that layoff notices are expected to be sent out to affected employees next week.

Verizon offered $4 million retention bonuses to two top executives — consumer group head Sowmyanarayan Sampath and finance chief Anthony Skiadas — to keep them through at least the end of 2027, according to the Journal.

Schulman told a Wall Street Journal event this week that Verizon needs to get “scrappier and less bureaucratic.”

Under Vestberg’s leadership, Verizon’s stock price has lost more than 30% of its value in the last five years.

Instead of focusing on network engineering, the company needs to become “obsessed with what customers want,” he said.

“We have not performed for our shareholders,” Schulman admitted. “I’m not afraid at this point in my life to make really hard decisions.”

“We have lost market share, consistently,” he said. “And that cannot continue, going forward.”

“From our perspective, Dan is in charge, he has a mandate and he expects the company to carry it out — and we will,” Rich Young, a Verizon spokesperson, told The Post.

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Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr in February criticized Verizon for its promotion of DEI programs and said it could be a factor in the Frontier deal.

Verizon said in a letter to Carr seen by Reuters the company was removing its “Diversity and Inclusion” website and removing references to DEI from employee training and making other changes to hiring, career development, supplier diversity and corporate sponsorship practices.

Verizon said it was removing references to DEI from employee training and making other changes to hiring, career development, supplier diversity and corporate sponsorship practices. Christopher Sadowski

The company will no longer maintain any workforce diversity goals and will drop a component of its management compensation plan that historically included a goal to increase the representation of women and minorities in the company’s US workforce.

“Verizon recognizes that some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination,” said Verizon chief legal officer Vandana Venkatesh in the letter saying the change were effective immediately.

Carr, a Republican designated by President Trump in January, told NBC News parent Comcast in February he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of DEI programs.

Carr said in a statement he was pleased Verizon is ending its DEI policies outlined in the letter. “This is a good and important step forward — one that promotes equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest,” Carr said.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr told NBC News parent Comcast in February he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of DEI programs. AFP via Getty Images

Verizon is nearing FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier.

Trump in January issued sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the US and pressured the private sector to join the initiative.

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Carr, a Republican designated by President Donald Trump last month, earlier this month told NBC News-parent Comcast he was opening a similar probe into the company’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Verizon is awaiting FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier.

“In order to aid the FCC’s resolution of these matters, please reach out to the agency personnel that have been working on Verizon’s pending transactions at the FCC,” Carr wrote. “They are the FCC personnel most familiar with Verizon’s operations due to their merger review activity.”

FCC Chair Brendan Carr launched a probe into Comcast’s DEI policies earlier this month. Getty Images

Carr criticized Verizon for its continued promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Verizon said in a statement, “we are aware of the chairman’s concerns. We look forward to engaging with the FCC staff on this issue. Verizon has always focused on having the best talent to deliver the best experiences to our customers.”

Carr said in his letter to Comcast earlier this month that the commission would take “fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act… including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI.”

Shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump — who designated Carr as chair — issued sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the United States and pressured the private sector to join the initiative.

Verizon, which is awaiting approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier, said it was aware of the chairman’s concerns. REUTERS

Carr is investigating numerous media companies.

The FCC is reviewing whether a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris violates “news distortion” rules.

Paramount is seeking FCC approval for an $8.4-billion merger with Skydance Media.

In January, Carr reinstated complaints about how Walt Disney’s ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and NBC letting Harris appear on “Saturday Night Live” before the election.

The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.

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