Why most countries are struggling to shut down 2G(restofworld.org)
36 pointsby theaienthusiasta day ago6 comments
  • dfawcusa day ago
    Also from my experience, 2G feature phones have better battery characteristics, longer standby time.

    I've a 4G feature phone, and even when only its 2G modem is enabled, it doesn't last as long as the prior 2G phone did. When the 4G modem is enabled (which also uselessly enables its 3G capabilities), it discharges a lot faster.

    • aceazzameen21 hours ago
      Yep. I'm currently using my old Samsung Galaxy smartphone as a "house phone" simply because the battery life is beyond any other new cell phone. It gets charged once every 2-4 weeks depending on usage, and it's an ancient battery, which is even more surprising!

      The issue isn't the size of the battery, it's that 4G and 5G devices drain batteries on standby at a much higher rate, whether data is on or off. This is why I turn 5G off on my new smartphone. The increased speed doesn't justify the increased energy consumption for me.

    • Paiannia day ago
      I suspect that would be offset by efficiency gains on the infrastructure side.

      And thanks to smartphones, people are used to charging their phone every night, so it doesn't feel like a hindrance like it used to.

      Incidentally, 3G capabilities would only be used when the phone's searching for networks or connected to a 3G network (I think), which are becoming very rare nowadays.

      • TrueDualitya day ago
        Look a bit farther out than the first world countries you're used to. Reliable energy, and energy to your night stand aren't available everywhere and the countries still sticking to 2G largely fall into that category. Having the flexibility to only need a charging once a month makes these devices actually usable tools.

        2G due to its lower information density is also easier to receive and transmit generally allowing significantly lower density of towers and longer reliable range. In largely rural areas there aren't enough customers for companies to invest in towers for the same level of 4G coverage.

        • Paiannia day ago
          I used to carry a Nokia 6310i with a new battery and it couldn't make it to a month without a charge. Maybe 2 weeks. My 235 4G can last about a week on standby. I'm not sure what the expectation is in the sort of places you're referring to, but I know some economically poorer regions are investing in 4G masts, like India thanks to Jio phones.
          • dfawcus3 hours ago
            As I recall, my old Nokia 1616-2 would last over 3 weeks between charges if not used. Only somewhat less if only used for texts, say 2.5 to 3 weeks.

            It was actually making calls which cut in to the battery, but still it could last 7-10 days with the pattern of usage I had.

            That is really what is needed for simple "feature phones"

      • egberts1a day ago
        Nobody is going to buy a phone that charges more frequently than once a day.
  • bdavbdava day ago
    UK here - not 20 minutes ago, sat in rural Kent, I picked up my wife’s iPhone to see the “E” at the top. Haven’t seen one in ages (I’m on a 3G+ only network, 3), and assumed we had shut it down.
    • memsom5 hours ago
      The UK is shutting down 3G aggressively. Vodafone closed 3G last year and most other providers are closing this year. For me that means the poor 4G reception and okay 3G has become poor 4G and useless 2G. The issue is they have closed 3G without any improvement to the 4G network and no sniff of 5G.
  • ksec21 hours ago
    Not having to maintain 2G / 3G Network, freeing up Spectrum for 4G/5G brings many business interest to even subsidise a 4G feature phone which could be less than $30. Along with Government subsidy which ultimately come from selling Spectrum to MNO, it is effectively spread out to everyone. Generally speaking it is not a problem for most part of the world including Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

    The thing that stops developed world from switching off are long term contracts of IoTs. But last I heard most of those will be ended by 2030.

    • ianburrell21 hours ago
      I sort of wonder if the ideal is keeping 2G, and migrating 3G to 4G. 2G makes a nice backup, is still used for IoT, and uses small range of frequencies.
  • alanfranza day ago
    There’s IoT as well. A lot of iot devices rely on gsm sms and low-speed data transmissions; that’s not easy to maintain over 4g/5g even for data only (no voice) iirc.
    • stop50a day ago
      The problem is not the protocol. Iot doesn't need even the voice channel. Gsm devices are simply cheap and work everywhere. 4g and 5g have often spots where no one has an antenna in reach.
      • toast0a day ago
        That depends on deployment, but on a network that's trying to shut down 2G, I'd expect them to have updated most of their towers to 4g/5g already, with exceptions being where they only have enough spectrum to run the smallest possible block of 2G.

        4G and 5G also opened up more frequencies, some higher and some lower; lower frequencies generally travel further so assuming spectrum is available to carriers, I would expect most towers, at least in areas with coverage problems, to start using new frequencies when they get upgraded to 4G.

        Certainly while carriers are building out, there will be pockets of coverage where older generation is better, but personally, I found I got better coverage once I was able to use 5G. I was in a good coverage area when I moved to 4G, so I remember that less for increased coverage and more for increased quality of service.

    • ianburrell21 hours ago
      There are LTE-M and NB-IoT for low power IoT on 4G. NB-IoT is for low bandwidth and super low power, LTE-M is for regular data but limited bandwidth. I think NB-IoT needs new gear on towers while LTE-M uses existing LTE. NB-IoT is lower power and wider coverage than GSM.
      • alanfranz3 hours ago
        But you need to upgrade tons of existing devices. That’s the issue.
      • mikestew20 hours ago
        But that doesn't do any good for existing 2G devices, does it?
  • catlikesshrimp21 hours ago
    >>But to move to 5G, we need spectrum...

    BS reason? Nicaragua keeps 2g and will "soon" implement 5g.

    Edit: Nicaragua

  • nottorpa day ago
    There are new AI modems from Qualcomm that will surely improve the speed on those 2G networks without needing new and expensive towers :)