You may want to take a closer look at that “hockey puck” hotspot device you got from Verizon to see if it’s one of the millions of such units being recalled by Verizon. There are three affected Ellipsis Jetpack hotspot models whose lithium-ion batteries could potentially overheat and that have subsequently been deemed as potential fire hazards and recalled by Verizon.
The three Ellipsis Jetpack hotspot models affected are as follows:
Verizon is rolling out a software patch that will temporarily mitigate any potential risk of fire on the affected hotspot devices, preventing them from being charged whiles they are in use. This means that the device will only charge when it’s been powered off, so there may be some gaps in connectivity while it recharges. Once you are able to, Verizon advises you to visit a store to organize a replacement device.
It’s not known if Verizon is replacing the hotspot devices with the same model, so it might be an idea to check that the replacement hotspot has similar capabilities to its predecessor.
You can learn more about Verizon’s hotspot recall on the official notice, as linked to below:
[Verizon]