Google Fi is offering $100 to upgrade your 3G phone before it stops working

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google Fi will stop activating non-VoLTE phones in January, and encourage customers with older phones to upgrade with a $100 credit provided they purchase a new phone from the Fi store and activate it before December 31st, 9to5Google reports.

Google’s hand is forced in the matter. Customers subscribe to Fi, but as an MVNO, Fi actually piggybacks on T-Mobile and US Cellular’s networks to provide coverage. Since T-Mobile has already announced its own plans to phase out support for non-VoLTE phones starting in January 2021, Fi has to as well.

VoLTE stands for “Voice over LTE”, which is the handling of phone calls over LTE data rather than older 3G tech. VoLTE calls are typically…

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