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say BYE BYE to 3G in the US

ocnbrze said:
if anybody still has a phone that works only on 3G, well it maybe time to start looking for a new device. Once 5G gets turned fully on, most of the major cell companies will be turning off their 3G networks.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-11-05/column-5g-wireless-transition

i say good riddance. i mean how many people still use 3G? how many 3G only phones still work?
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I would not like being forced into an upgrade. However, I've upgraded a number of times since 3G was a thing. Battery on that old of a device if nothing else has likely caused most to upgrade already. App compatibility is a likely motivator as well. I doubt the dropping of 3G networks will impact that many.
 
As far as actually using a PHONE goes, 3G actually works extremely well.
4G basically sucks in comparison.
5G is basically non-existant, and I won't live long enough to see any real use for it.

Of course, they are already working on 6G and 7G, which will be even worse as far as function and value.
 
puppykickr said:
As far as actually using a PHONE goes, 3G actually works extremely well.
4G basically sucks in comparison.
5G is basically non-existant, and I won't live long enough to see any real use for it.

Of course, they are already working on 6G and 7G, which will be even worse as far as function and value.
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you are such a pessimist:p

any of my phones when i'm in only 3G zone which is not much here in LA, but i have encountered a few spots still, my phone be it the note 8, 10 or my z fold 3, 3G was absolutely terrible. i have 5G for most of where i work now, and i will never look back.
 
Was reading this thread at lunchtime, and so out of interest I did a scan today and evidently my previous carrier, China Mobile, is still operating their 2G(GSM) network. And also the latest Samsung phones are apparently still compatible with 2G(GSM)

Screenshot_20211110-122247_Call settings.jpg


And I've never had any problems with 5G reception, including HD calling.
5g.jpg



Of course this is in China, not America.
 
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ocnbrze said:
if anybody still has a phone that works only on 3G, well it maybe time to start looking for a new device. Once 5G gets turned fully on, most of the major cell companies will be turning off their 3G networks.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-11-05/column-5g-wireless-transition

i say good riddance. i mean how many people still use 3G? how many 3G only phones still work?
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You can also say goodbye to anything that doesn't support volte. AT&T was kind enough to send me a steaming pile of #### four year old refurbished samsung and a 5g chip to go with it. The accompanying letter said that they would no longer support 3g in a couple of months. When I called them and said that I had a Oneplus that was certainly not 3g I was told about the volte thing, they said that they had announced it about a year ago, you know, in a junk text that I didn't read, because I block junk texts. They were so proud to send me a used phone that they even told me I was welcome.
 
If the OnePlus supports VoLTE then the fact that they sent you another phone is surely irrelevant. If it doesn't, well I can't imagine a UK network sending any form of replacement phone, just an email with a list of things you could pay to "upgrade" to.

(No UK network is planning to turn off 3g before 2023, so it will be more than a year before we see how they actually handle that).
 
My backup phone (in the UK) is 3G, so good for another couple of years. After that it'll become a WiFi music player/internet radio while my current Android10 phone becomes a backup device.
 
ocnbrze said:
well this is only for the US. not sure how other countries are going to handle it.
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I know China Mobile is still running their 2G(GSM) network, so I'm pretty sure they ain't going to be turning off their 3G any time soon. Very likely because there's still a lot of legacy devices out there that are not phones, that use 2G and 3G for their data, things like vending machines, traffic monitoring, alarms, etc.
 
mikedt said:
I know China Mobile is still running their 2G(GSM) network, so I'm pretty sure they ain't going to be turning off their 3G any time soon. Very likely because there's still a lot of legacy devices out there that are not phones, that use 2G and 3G for their data, things like vending machines, traffic monitoring, alarms, etc.
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there are vending machines that uses cellular data? what for?
 
ocnbrze said:
there are vending machines that uses cellular data? what for?
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Yeh, so it can accept contactless and smart-phone payments, and I guess to remotely report stock levels and sales, price changes, any faults, incidents of vandalism, etc. There's a machine in the village, that vends condoms and other things of that ilk, I don't know how often it's used or attended to by the company, but it's got a cellular antenna on top of it.

There's also things like ATMs, ticket machines, bike and car charging kiosks, package pickup and drop-off boxes, that all use cellular data. Back in the day ATMs used to rely on hard-wired leased lines or POTS phone lines.
 
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mikedt said:
Yeh, so it can accept contactless and smart-phone payments, and I guess to remotely report stock levels and sales, price changes, any faults, incidents of vandalism, etc. There's a machine in the village, that vends condoms and other things of that ilk, I don't know how often it's used or attended to by the company, but it's got a cellular antenna on top of it.

There's also things like ATMs, ticket machines, bike and car charging kiosks, package pickup and drop-off points, that all use cellular data. Back in the day ATMs used to rely on hard-wired leased lines or POTS phone lines.
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ahhhhh yes credit card payments, forgot about those.....lol
 
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