The Essential Phone was originally planned to work on all four major US carriers, but like pretty much everything that has to do with Verizon, there was an issue that delayed support.
Verizon has a much more rigorous certification process for their phones than the other carriers do, which typically takes a little bit longer. Somehow they didn't manage to get that process done in the three months that the Essential Phone was delayed, either.
Regardless, Andy Rubin jumped on Twitter to announce that certification was complete, and yes, you should be able to use your Essential Phone on Verizon now. Big Red still isn't selling or financing it directly, so you'll either need to get it directly through Essential or Sprint, but as long as you can get your hands on one, you're good to go with whatever carrier you prefer.
Essential gets a lot of criticism for the things it didn't do well during the announcement and launch period, but making sure their phone gets full network freedom deserves some praise. Hopefully it helps out their sales, too.
source: Andy Rubin (Twitter)
