In December 2021, the United Kingdom government and the four major operators of the country agreed to shut down 2G and 3G networks by 2033. However, it seems it will take much less time for those legacy systems to say goodbye to customers, at least in practice.
This week, Virgin Media O2 and BT announced their plans to gradually sunset 2G and 3G. The former will start the process in April, while the latter will focus on business for now.
Virgin Media
The city of Durham, in northeastern England, will be the first to switch off Virgin’s 3G signal. This move was announced in 2023.
Still, the company said that customers in Durham who don’t upgrade to a 4G or 5G device before the change will be able to make voice calls and send text messages as usual. However, they will not be able to use mobile data.
“Switching off 3G will be an important milestone in the evolution of our network, enabling us to focus our attention and investment on faster and more reliable 4G and 5G networks that will deliver improved services for our customers,” Jeanie York, Virgin Media O2’s Chief Technology Officer, said in a press release.
According to Virgin Media O2, its 3G network carries less than 3% of all network data, a figure that keeps falling. The idea is to start switching off the signal in one city, monitor the impacts and correct any issues when moving to other locations.
BT
Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer at BT Group and Kerry Small, Chief Operating Officer at BT Business, announced that the operator will discontinue the 2G network for businesses.
According to them, this will be a gradual process that includes expanding 4G, 5G and IoT solutions. Today, 0.1% of all data on the entire EE mobile network is carried over 2G.
“We want to make sure all UK businesses understand how our network is evolving and give several years notice before any changes take effect,” they said in a blog post.
“In the coming months, we will be reaching out to all our business customers who still use 2G in their operations to encourage and support them in making the move to a modern network,” the executives added.
