Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In 10 days, on December 31, 2022, Verizon, a major US telecom operator, will shut down its 3G network. This time, Verizon was firm, saying that "the date will not be extended."

At this point, the 2G / 3G network in the United States has basically "disappeared". AT&T shut down its own 3G network in 2022, and has already closed 2G network before; T-Mobile successively shut down the 3G network inherited from Sprint and its own 3G network in 2022, leaving only 2G network.

American operators are just a microcosm. With the accelerated popularity of 5G, there is a wave of 2G / 3G network shutdown around the world. GSA data show that as of October 2022, 142 operators in 56 countries or regions have completed, planned or are in the process of 2G / 3G network shutdown.

In China, although telecom operators have not clearly put forward a timetable for shutting down 2G / 3G, the pace is accelerating to promote 2G / 3G de-frequency work. A reporter from the IT Times learned that a domestic operator has made it clear internally that it will complete the 2G / 3G network frequency reduction and de-frequency work by the end of next year, which also means that 2G / 3G will be off the network at that time.

Verizon "final blow", there is no more 3G in the United States. Shutting down 3G networks is definitely one of the major events of the US communications industry in 2022. All three major operators will shut down their 3G networks in 2022, despite twists and turns in the process.

AT&T was the first to launch 3G services in the United States, and was also the first to shut down 3G networks. In 2019, the operator announced that it would shut down 3G in February 2022. However, as the closing day approached, the US Alert Industry Communications Commission (AICC) raised an objection, asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue an order to prevent AT&T from shutting down 3G networks because many home health monitoring systems, burglar and fire alarm systems are still using AT&T 's 3G network. But AT&T still shut down its 3G network in February this year as planned, and AT&T believes it has done enough to shut down 3G, "giving customers at least three years' notice, providing free and discounted equipment, and providing corporate customers with incentives of more than $100m".

T-Mobile shut down the original Sprint 3G network on March 31, 2022, and the two operators merged in 2020. On June 30, 2022, T-Mobile shut down its 3G network again.

Compared with the "tough" AT&T and the "straightforward" T-Mobile, another operator, Verizon, is "weak". The plan to shut down the 3G network has repeatedly skipped tickets, delaying it to 2020 from 2019 and then to the end of 2022 from 2020. This time, Verizon is adamant that it will not postpone any further and will shut down the last 3G CDMA base station on December 31, 2022. Verizon says less than 1 per cent of customers are still accessing 3G networks as a result of efforts over the past few years.

In other words, there will be no 3G network in the United States from 2023.

In terms of 2G networks, AT&T shut down 2G networks in early 2017 and Verizon closed at the end of 2019. Only T-Mobile has not said when to shut down its own 2G networks.

Globally, according to GSA data, 76 operators in 43 countries and regions have completed or planned to shut down 2G networks, and 80 operators in 42 countries and regions have completed, planned or are in the process of 3G shutdown.

With the advent of 5G, Chinese operators have encountered "four generations in the same house" of 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G, but this brings not happiness, but pain and pressure, high operation and maintenance costs, limited spectrum resources and insufficient site resources, which seriously affect the development of China's information and communication industry.

As early as 2019, a person from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said: "5G commercial trains have started, and the withdrawal conditions of China's mobile communication networks 2G and 3G have gradually matured." This is the first official statement on the withdrawal of 2G / 3G.

In November 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly put forward "speeding up the withdrawal of 2G and 3G networks and coordinating the coordinated development of 4G and 5G networks" in the "14th five-year Plan". The withdrawal of 2G / 3G will be included in the key work of network infrastructure during the 14th five-year Plan period.

Telecom operators are actively promoting 2G / 3G frequency reduction and de-netting work, and the conditions are gradually ripe.

"We have completely retired 3G here, and the main task this year is 2G, reducing the frequency points and only maintaining basic coverage. According to the requirements of the group, the 2G frequency reduction and de-netting task will be completed in December next year, and we will strive to complete it in June next year." Said a provincial operator insider.

An important reason for the gradual maturity of 2G / 3G withdrawal conditions is that with the passage of time, VoLTE has now completely taken the lead, voice services no longer need to fall back to 2G / 3G networks, and the necessity of 2G / 3G existence has been greatly reduced. "on our side, the traffic carried by VoLTE has been nearly 90%, and 2G / 3G traffic has dropped very sharply," the operator said.

According to this person, 2G base stations with no or low traffic are being shut down and combed and checked to provide corresponding 4G / 5G network coverage where there is no 2G network.

"after 2G / 3G frequency reduction and de-netting is completed, these high-quality low-frequency resources can be used for 4G / 5G network construction, which will effectively improve the network depth coverage effect of residential areas and bring better perception for users." The above-mentioned person said.

The challenge of user migration is great, and it is more difficult for "things" to shut down 2G / 3G than "people". It is not simply to shut down the network, but more importantly, to promote the transfer of 2G / 3G users and services to 4G / 5G. This is precisely a difficult task.

"in terms of public users, mainly older users are using old terminals that do not support VoLTE, and these users will be affected if 2G / 3G is shut down in the future, so it is necessary to take some guiding measures to promote these users to move to 4G / 5G, such as launching ultra-low-cost phones that support VoLTE," the operator said.

In fact, the bigger challenge lies not in "people", but in "things". In other words, it is more difficult to promote the transfer of Internet of things services using 2G / 3G connections than to promote the migration of public customers to 4G / 5G.

In 2020, in the notice on further promoting the all-round Development of Mobile Animal Internet issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it was clearly proposed that "while ensuring the network service level of the existing Internet of things terminals, guide the new Internet of things terminals to no longer use 2G / 3G networks, and promote the migration of stock 2G / 3G Internet of things services to NB-IoT / 4G (Cat1) / 5G networks."

But the problem is that the stock of Internet of things terminals using 2G / 3G connections is very large. Before the large-scale development of NB-IoT and LTE Cat.1, the Internet of things terminals based on cellular network were mainly accessed through 2G and 3G, especially 2G carried most of the cellular Internet of things connections. According to the statistics of the Internet of things think-tank, most of the 1.03 billion IoT connections in 2019 are 2G / 3G networks. Even after the "squeeze" and the migration to NB-IoT and Cat.1 in the next two years, the remaining stock still has hundreds of millions.

Compared with the public business, the use cycle of the Internet of things business is longer, such as intelligent water meter business, which may take more than a decade, and many of them are used in key production and operation scenarios, so it is relatively difficult to migrate.

But fundamentally speaking, the 2G / 3G network can now be replaced by newer and better technologies, and it is "certain" to withdraw from the network, in China, perhaps next year.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: IT Times (ID:vittimes), author: Qian Lifu, Editor: Qian Lifu, kicked Girl, typesetting: Ji Jiaying

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