Verizon: 2021 CDMA Shutoff Date Simply a 'Guideline'

I Think this is more for the Machine 2 Machine customers than anything else. Those customers have to buy new equipment and transfer all their machine to a new standard. These companies want to make sure the equipment they buy will last years because converting a whole company from EDGE/ 1X to LTE is an expensive project.

Also they want to make sure LTE is here to stay unlike Sprints WiMax network. I know in my rural area the electric company use AT&T M2M network to connect several junctions and meters so they monitor their network for blackouts and usages, and the water companies does something similar for their water networks.