You may remember that in some of my previous blog posts, I spoke about Openreach’s plan to switch off the PSTN network in 2025. Alongside this, the mobile networks have been planning to switch off 2G and 3G phone services ...
You guessed it, 2025! However, that's on O2. Vodafone has already announced that in Glasgow, 2/3G will be phased out starting by early 2024! Folks, we are going to be digitised; I want to be virtualised and ride around in a video game like in the original TRON movie!
What we term as a 'brick' phone is basically the old Nokia-style handset. There are millions of users who do not have smartphones so the chipsets are not designed to pick up 4G signals. A lot of voice actually goes via the data network, especially now with the rise of calling via an App such as What's App. The voice transmission is effectively VoIP.
Having one of the earliest mobile network systems (from a global perspective), 2G has been around since the 1970s in terms of analogue transmission, before the SIM card-based GSM system arrived in the mid-90s. I was there at the beginning, having started to sell Mobile Technology in 1993 (no ChatGPT required and yes, I'm that old!)
As we upgrade the landline infrastructure, by the very nature of the beast, mobile phone masts are served with better capacity (as each mast has to have a transit to the landline network) so our cellular infrastructure has naturally been able to develop masts that can send and receive data at higher and higher rates.
I regularly test this by opening a random selection of videos from all over the internet to check if there is any lag and buffering like in the old (landline) ADSL days. I can safely say that in the main, 4G allows steaming very well these days!
It's not a good habit. Mainly I'm saying this from a health perspective. My eyes have got worse looking at emails on my phone. I just dread to think what it is going to be like for the younger generation who seem to be glued to a screen for what seems a long time.
For businesses who may have the older 3G data dongles, it's worth looking at an alternative solution as products have evolved considerably in the pocket WiFi space.
Find a good independent consultant who knows the market place and they will be able to advise your business accordingly as to who the movers and shakers are in the Telecoms arena.
Know of anyone who uses a non-smart phone? Check it's going to work in 2025.
If you feel inspired to find out more then do call me on 07555 807700 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.