Time to ditch your 3G Phone.

[#1]

BT to switch off 3G network forcing hundreds of thousands to replace their mobiles (telegraph.co.uk)

Hundreds of thousands of people will be forced to upgrade their mobile phones as BT prepares to switch off the 15-year-old 3G network.

The former state monopoly said on Wednesday that it would turn off the mobile airwaves by 2023, becoming the first UK operator to do so.

It will upgrade large swathes of its network to faster 5G and aim for nationwide coverage by 2028, despite the cost of ripping out network gear from China's Huawei.

BT said customers on the EE, Plusnet and BT brands would be “phased off” 3G, adding the network now represented just 2pc of its data traffic.

[#2]

I also understand that many iphones cannot use the 5G network so lets hope 4G has a long life.

[#3]

iPhone 12 (last years model) was the first that started support 5G.
Guess in 15 years when they switch off most will have upgraded

[#4]

 Anyone want to buy a Nokia 3310?

[#5]

adding the network now represented just 2pc of its data traffic.

Yes, but how much of its voice traffic ?

So are they going to keep the 2g network ( or has that already gone ? ) for voice or are they going to use VoLTE for voice ?

[#6]

@dvorak 

Do you mean that BT group customers  will lose use of this network or the frequency will be shut down also disconnecting piggy backed operators? I believe that this is Asda and Virgin?

[#7]

---

@dvorak wrote:
iPhone 12 (last years model) was the first that started support 5G.
Guess in 15 years when they switch off most will have upgraded

---

We'll probably be on 12G by then - but as you say, most will have upgraded by then, and who knows what developments will have taken place by then?

[#8]

Article says they're switching off the 3G frequencies so guess that will impact all the mvno's

[#9]

This was announced in the trade press some time ago. The same goes for Vodafone and Three who have announced similar.
The fact is this has already started with the bandwidth on 3G being reduced and some of it repurposed for 4G. Voda are also running some 5G on the 2100 Mhz band freed up.
As you can't make voice calls over 4G or 5G unless you have VoLTE, causing the phone to drop to 3G to place the call, then VoLTE will become essential.