Verizon is pausing its 3G shutdown indefinitely

[EliZ]

If you haven't already seen this:

Verizon is indefinitely delaying the shutdown of its 3G network, pushing back the original plan for the network to shutter at the end of 2020 to an as-yet-undetermined point in the future.

The news comes from Verizon spokesperson Kevin King, who tells Light Reading, “Our 3G network is operational and we don’t have a plan to shut it down at this time. We’ll work with customers to move them to newer technology.”

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/5/22...ork-old-phones

[whacker]

Wow. Except for M2M devices (industrial/institutional devices and vending machines) two plus years should have given plenty of time to migrate to something newer.

Here's another take on the same news:

https://www.engadget.com/verizon-put...055421069.html

[trackVW]

now will Tmobile and AT+T do the same ?

[rpz1]

I think the issue is they're trying to stop cdma at the same time they're starting to share 4G Band 5 with 5G. The capacity just isn't there in some areas even if cdma is converted. Phones are not phones anymore. They're mini computers all after the same data available.

[DRNewcomb]

Where Verizon has one of the two 850 MHz bands, it effectively costs them nothing to keep a minimal CDMA service running because the band has some odd little 2.5 and 1.5 MHz extensions that are too small to do much of anything else with.

I recall the frustration when our 2000 Mercedes stopped supporting TeleAid (their On-Star) because analog cellular was shut down. Mercedes did not offer any upgrade to their 8-year-old cars. I guess they expected us to just buy a new Mercedes. There are a lot of cars out there with non-LTE data connections.

[gunterm]

Whew, glad that I can keep using my Telular box a little while longer now

[brad15]

I let the old Alltel StarTac on PagePlus expire in November after running the minutes down. I should have kept mine activated

[rpz1]

I left my 3G's go even with minutes left. Indefinitely doesn't mean they can't shut it down in someone's area tomorrow. There won't be any advance warning since we've all been warned over the past couple years. It's ok for people to keep their 3G active if they like the phone, BUT better have another compatible phone ready to go.

[brad15]

I left my 3G's go even with minutes left. Indefinitely doesn't mean they can't shut it down in someone's area tomorrow. There won't be any advance warning since we've all been warned over the past couple years. It's ok for people to keep their 3G active if they like the phone, BUT better have another compatible phone ready to go.

Oh yeah, my main phone is an iPhone 12 ProMax, but that StarTac was fun to pull out when in public and someone asked me for my snap or insta like i'm 10yrs younger than I am now.. "Sure, can you help me find it" and it either got rid of them or started a semi-meaningful conversation.

[Jairzinho]

I let the old Alltel StarTac on PagePlus expire in November after running the minutes down. I should have kept mine activated

The battery of my Nokia 3585i recently died. I had this phone with PagePlus for 14 years and it was still working fine until few weeks ago. But now the phone wouldn't stay on even if plugged all the time. I considered buying a cheap used battery for it, but I upgraded anyway.