My Mom's old phone connects for a few days in summer???

[AC Question]

So ever since my mom's old phone (HTC Incredible) started glitching up because I have no idea, she's been using a Samsung Note, and for a while the HTC was just laying around unused. I found it again months later and started listening to the radio and just playing with the apps still on it. Then, sometime in June/July, it started getting a connection! I downloaded some free apps and had some fun with them, then the connection went away a few days later. The same thing happened this past summer, so I got some more free apps to mess around with. What I'm wondering is this-how is it that both Wi-Fi and/or data work for just a few days every year, and why not the rest of the time?