The 3G mobile network has been key to reaching the current moment when 4G offers us acceptable speeds for most connected services and 5G begins to appear to offer more speed, less latency and greater capacity. The problem is that the frequency spectrum is limited and we have the space that we have, no more, no less. For that reason, it is important to turn off outdated technologies when new ones reach a similar or higher level of coverage. That will happen sooner rather than later with 3G and more and more countries or operators confirm their plans in this regard .
3G will be the next big technology to disappear. Many have the belief that it would be the turn of 2G to be older, but the truth is that there are more devices, especially the Internet of Things, that depend on this technology. The natural substitute for 3G is 4G or 5G, but only 5G will be for 2G . For this reason, first the 3G will be turned off to release its frequencies and later on the 2G will be turned off.
The plans have varied slightly over the years. In 2016 it was pointed out that Spain was going to turn off 3G in 2025 and 2G in 2030 . Later, it was even stated that the third generation of mobile telephony would shut down in 2020, something that has not ended up happening. Well, it has actually started to happen, but not drastically. In fact, already in 2019 we detected that Vodafone was working on refarming frequencies from 3G to 4G in those environments where 3G traffic is practically no longer handled to provide more coverage and capacity to 4G networks. Basically, 3G is being turned off at 900 MHz to offer 4G on those frequencies.
Germany will turn it off this year and the US in 2022 and Spain?
Several German operators announced their plans to shut down 3G networks. The first will be Deutsche Telekom on June 31, 2021, while Telefónica Deutschland (O2) and Vodafone Germany will do the same for the year 2022. Today, we meet another large operator that has confirmed its intention to turn off 3G also at the end of the year 2022.
In this case, it will be Verizon , the United States operator, which will turn off 3G on December 31, 2022. Currently, it uses the 850 and 1900 MHz frequencies to provide service with this technology. The operator considers that they can be much more useful to accelerate the deployment of 5G, since 700 MHz there are occupied for 4G. This date is final as it has been postponed several times.
And in Spain? Movistar has indicated on several occasions that “100% of the copper network will have been replaced by fiber before 2025, when the shutdown of the 3G network will also be completed.” In the case of Orange, Stéphane Richard pointed out that “the shutdown of 2G connections can be expected by 2025”. Vodafone placed it between 2022 and 2024.