Future of 2G

alunpryce · ‎06-05-2018

Does anyone have any idea if (or when) O2 will phase out 2G?

pgn · ‎06-05-2018

Good question though, @alunpryce!

Nothing obvious on the Coverage Checker page:

https://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker

Here's a bit of background about what the low nG references mean in context of CDMA, GSM, etc.

Some countries hve already switched-off 2G service in their networks, with 3G slated to disappear before 2G in some areas!

https://www.slideshare.net/3G4GLtd/2g3g-switch-off-dates

Remote meters, some ATM networks and such apparently still levarge the 2G networks...

Links to O2 Social Media Team here

MI5 · ‎06-05-2018

As more and more areas are refarmed for 4g, 2g will get less and less until eventually it will be gone completely.
I expect the arrival of 5g will see the end of 2g entirely.

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darrengf · ‎06-05-2018

2G in the U.K. may be rounder a little longer. 3G will disappear first to be honest.

EE when th introduce new Masts are now 2G and 4G enabled only.

reason why 2G will stay longer is due to things like smart meters using them, lots of card machines use 2G as well.

2G is still a good fall back for calls,sms and basic data. It’s also has a much wider footprint still than either 3 or 4G. There are still lots of 2G handsets being used and still been sold but shops.

4G will probably become the new 2G. But when I don know, but not any time soon I have to be honest. 3G first as lots is being refarmed to 4G. 5G will take longer to cover at present due to the much high frequency it’s on. Also TV is being moved from 700MHz to 600MHz to free up 700MHz for the 5G Auction. But the earliest for this is 2020/2021.

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Anonymous · ‎30-05-2018

One of the Orange execs has said 2G still has a role to play

https://mobileeurope.co.uk/news-analysis/2g-will-have-its-role-to-play-in-iot-future-claims-orange-e...

Obviosuly each operator is going to have a different network development roadmap but as has been said, I think it'll stick around for a bit.

Sat navs also still use GPRS for traffic updates.

darrengf · ‎31-05-2018

Yes 2G isn’t going any where soon I think.

lots of devices still just use it.

3G will be killed of first, refarm this frequency back to 4G.

2G brought innovation, SMS, GPRS, EDGE, MMS and much more. All networks now have great 2G coverage, that even to this date on occasions you go into a supermarket and the phone may revert to 2G.

its a technology that is tried and tested and works great.

3G was eveloution, but just never hit the spot, yep it brought faster speeds, but also lots of things it was supposed to do and didn’t. Coverage wasn’t the best especially on the 2100MHz. It lacked oomph.

4G came in fast to replace 3G to me, offering much fast speeds, better coverage on the 800MHz band and offered what the customer wanted and never got from 3G.

However the 4G standard was botched from the word go. No Voice on 4G which is why it’s so patchy now to this date. VOLTE standard came at a later date and the networks had to then add it.

5G will be an add on to 4G coverage, offering even faster speeds, but will again depend on coverage, 2G has extensive coverage, 4G still patchy even to this date. Yes I will agree 4G is so much better now, but I can find places to this date that 4G still doesn’t exsit but 2G does.

to me it’s daft to switch of 2G at least until 4G has reached the same overall coverage. Also a lot of customer still only have 2G phones and many shops like Argos still sell only 2G phones. My mum has one. She has a Samsung slide phone, it calls, sms and even she can get weather on wap.

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jonnymk · ‎15-02-2019

O2 will probably be one of the first networks to switch off 2G and reuse that GSM900 capacity for LTE900, since they have some of the least bandwidth (in MHz) of all operators, and using it for GSM and 3G is very inefficient in terms of data throughout per MHz compared to LTE. However due to the fragmentation of the GSM900 and U900 spectrum o2 will need to work with another provider who also uses this spectrum in order for both to put a decent wide and 4G carrier on it, which will go through a few phases of reframing before complete 2G switch off around 2020. Those concerned about coverage need not be since reframing provides more or less the same coverage on a new air interface.