2023-12-01 19:07:30
We have already talked regarding it several times, mobile telephone operators intend to turn off in the medium term the antennas which transmit in 2G (a technology deployed in the 90s) and 3G (launched in the early 2000s). The goal is to recover frequencies from these obsolete networks to improve coverage and performance in 4G and 5G, two newer and more efficient technologies.
But while this issue only seems to affect devices that are only 2G or 3G compatible at first glance, that’s not actually the case, as shown this video. Indeed, many 4G smartphones still rely on 3G to make calls. Because yes, some people still make phone calls with a smartphone. In theory, it is possible to make calls with VoLTE technology, i.e. Voice over LTE (voice over LTE, the technical name for 4G) but not all 4G smartphones are compatible with this technology, which depends on the device but also the network. In the case of Apple, the technology is only available from the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5, 5c and 5S are not compatible. On these models, which are 4G, the voice necessarily switches to 2G or 3G. The problem mainly affects Android smartphones: certain fairly recent entry-level models (2016 in this example) are not compatible, and problems can occur on models that come from abroad and are not recognized by operators. .
The iPhone 5S is 4G but makes calls on 3G.
The person behind the video is in Australia, a country which will cut its 3G networks between the end of 2023 and mid-2024, but there is a little more leeway in France. Indeed, SFR intends to cut its 2G network in 2026 and its 3G network in 2028, Bouygues Telecom will wait until the end of 2026 for 2G and 2029 for 3G and Orange intends to cut 2G at the end of 2025 and 3G at the end of 2028. For Free Mobile, it It’s a little more complicated, but as part of the traffic partly depends on Orange, we can assume that the cutoff will take place in the same period.
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