Verizon is sending free 4G flip telephones to prospects who haven’t moved on from 3G

After just a few delays, Verizon appears poised to truly observe by on shutting down its 3G CDMA community on the finish of this yr. But the provider continues to be contending with a subset of shoppers who sat out the 4G LTE period and haven’t but upgraded their 3G telephones. So, as 2022 rolls onward, Verizon is sending these wi-fi subscribers a free extraordinarily fundamental flip telephone to stop them from dropping connectivity when the 3G community goes offline.

According to its website, Verizon will present prospects with one in every of three telephones: the Orbic Journey V, TCL’s Flip Pro, or the Nokia 2720 V Flip. The retail worth for every of these gadgets is underneath $100: the Orbic is $99.99, with the opposite two working $79.99.

Verizon says prospects can choose out of the free 4G LTE flip telephone by calling customer support and saying they’d prefer to “decline the free phone for CDMA sunset.” All three have acquired overwhelmingly destructive critiques on Verizon’s web site, with the very best averaging two stars. These are very fundamental telephones, in any case. The firm additionally notes that prospects can trade the free telephone for one thing else after receiving it. Phones will robotically be activated 30 days after being despatched out if prospects fail to take action on their very own.

Other US carriers have taken comparable steps to stop prospects on older gadgets from being left within the chilly after a community transition. Last yr, AT&T sent Samsung smartphones to some subscribers with 3G gadgets. Sprint’s LTE community was switched off simply days in the past, permitting these assets to be higher utilized by T-Mobile. The latter firm shut down its 3G UMTS community on July 1st, saying “across the industry, wireless companies are working to retire older network technologies as part of an important progression that will greatly enhance the performance of 4G and 5G.”