One of the contributing factors that delayed the launch of the Essential Phone was certification from the carriers. Andy Rubin didn’t mention specifically which one, but when the Essential Phone finally shipped without support for Verizon it was pretty obvious where they delay was.
Verizon has a much more extensive certification process for the phones on its network and this naturally takes longer. It seems though that whatever issues were arising from the certification have been ironed out. Andy Rubin took to Twitter to announce certification was finally completed and you could use the device on the Verizon network.
Despite the device now officially working through the carrier, it isn’t directly selling the device so you’ll need to get it directly through Essential or via Sprint.
It is interesting that the certification process was blamed as one of the reasons for the delay yet still wasn’t entirely complete when the Essential Phone launched anyway, so was that really the full story or just a scapegoat? We’ll never know but thankfully if you’re a Verizon customer with an Essential Phone you’ll be all set.
