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Verizon will give you a free smartphone to upgrade to 5G

Published Jun 1st, 2021 3:44PM EDT
Verizon 5G upgrade
Image: Michael Buckner/BGR

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It is only a matter of time before 5G becomes the industry standard for cellular networks, and Verizon’s doing its part to kickstart the next generation by giving away 5G phones. On Tuesday, Verizon announced a new campaign in which new and existing customers can trade in their old phones for a new 5G phone on an unlimited plan. Verizon doesn’t care if the screen is cracked or the sides are dented — you can still trade it in for a brand new 5G device.

If you switch to one of Verizon’s Play More, Do More, or Get More plans, you can get up to $700 off a new iPhone or $800 off an Android phone. This includes the iPhone 12 and Galaxy S21 lines, and the newer your trade-in phone is, the more credit you’ll receive from Verizon.

It is worth noting that the trade-in credit will be applied over the course of 24 months, so you will not truly see the benefits of this offer until two years have passed. That said, if you’re ready to upgrade to a 5G phone and you were planning to switch to Verizon anyway, it could be a great move.

“We launched the first 5G network and now we want to be the first to give everyone the experience of Verizon 5G. 5G Ultra Wideband is now available in parts of more than 75 cities, 13 airports and 60+ stadiums and arenas, and 5G Nationwide is available to more than 230 million people in over 2,700 cities. With 5G Ultra Wideband, customers can experience ultra-fast wireless speeds, giving them the potential to download and stream movies and TV shows in seconds, videoconference and collaborate on the go in near real time, and take advantage of new immersive experiences never before available wirelessly.”

Verizon currently offers three unlimited plans that include access to its 5G Ultra Wideband network. The first is Play More Unlimited, which costs $80 per month and includes entertainment-centric perks like 12 months of Discovery+, 12 months of Apple Arcade/Google Play Pass, 6 months of Apple Music, and the Disney Bundle (which gives users access to Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu with ads). Verizon’s Do More Unlimited plan is also $80 per month, but you will be trading some of the entertainment perks for 600GB of Verizon cloud storage and 50% off connected device plans.

Finally, if you want everything that both of the other plans have to offer, you can pay $90 per month for Get More Unlimited, which combines the perks of Play More and Do More with an extra 15GB of mobile hotspot data. These are the prices for one line, and drop with additional lines.

If you decide to leave your current carrier in order to take advantage of this offer, you will also receive a $300 prepaid Mastercard, which will be sent eight weeks after you sign up. Business customers that switch to Verizon will have a $300 credit applied to their accounts after 2-3 bills instead.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.