Yeah but the old phone will no longer work and I can not get the same cheap deal under the new prepaid plans that these phones use.  For years I just added minutes to the phone when I needed it and did not have a monthly charge.  Since I don't text and only made calls when necessary 30 dollars worth of time would last me for 6 months sometimes. 

I realize that only one percent of the Verizon customer base used 2g cdma and they need to charge me a lot more than they are making to generate the millions in profit they already make every year.  It would be a shame for people like me to continue to get what we have needed in a phone all these years--a simple way to occasionally communicate and nothing else.

That said, when cdma is terminated I will also be leaving for Consumer Cellular.  The pricing is better than Verizon if you're going to have to change now anyway.