FM Radio

[pederv60]

Is it worth it, to Verizon, to loose my business because they don't care enough about my safety to enable the FM chips on smart phones?

[Ann154]

Some smartphones have the FM radio enabled.

[pederv60]

Thank you Ann154.  Each time I talk with Verizon representatives, they say that Verizon doesn't have any currently available phones with the FM chip enabled.

[boringusername]

No offense but how often is that really going to be an issue? You car should have a radio you should have radios in your house. And emergency radio is like what $10? And yes it's worth it for them to let you go because the cost of activating FM radios on all phones( because they have to pay broadcast performance royalty if they do )is not worth the few people that will leave over this issue

[pederv60]

Enough of of an issue that even though I've been with Verizon for more than ten years, I'm willing to drop them.

[boringusername]

They aren't going to make an exception for you,

[pederv60]

Since I would like to stay with Verizon, a little research shows that the solution to my issue is to purchase an unlocked model of the phones Verizon sells.  Not only does the FM radio work, in the unlocked model, the unlocked model is typically a few hundred dollars less than the version sold by Verizon.  The down side is that a couple features need to be accessed through the manufacturers apps instead of Verizon apps and calls over WiFi may not be accessible at all.  The company I work for won't allow non-company hardware on the network, so this isn't an issue for me.

[boringusername]

I seriously doubt any unlocked version is significantly less. Also you are likely to lose the ability to use wi-fi calling if that is important to you.

[pederv60]

I was going to get an unlocked V30 for about $360, but since there was a cyber-Monday deal I went for an unlocked S9 for about $520.

[pederv60]

All of the cyber-Monday deals at Verizon were only good on 24 month payment plans.