They don't get free phone?
When at&t took over the divested Altell markets they gave the Altell customers a free phone of equal or lesser value of their current phone. But Sprint wants US Cellular customers to pay for a new phone?
Tbone they do get free phones. They get even better deals than a new customer switching to Sprint that is not with US Cellular. Those customers received a special communication from Sprint directly as the article states with special offers.
If VZW or AT&T shut down service like this, by this time today there would be 386 posts on how evil they are.