For twelve years, 4G has been widely implemented in people’s daily lives and, at the end of 2020, 5G took over. Enough to guarantee increasingly higher speeds, but above all to ensure the end of 2G and 3G mobile networks. A prospect that sows panic among some users as the deadlines approach. Recently, several press articles have reported the “obsolescence” of many phones in the coming months, citing older devices that do not support 4G.
From 2025… to 2029
However, we must put things into perspective. If Orange closes its 2G network from the end of 2025 and other operators (apart from Free, which does not have it) at the end of 2026, this slaughter will be gradual. The same goes for 3G, the end of which should fall in 2028 for Orange and SFR, and even at the end of 2029 for Bouygues Telecom.
Therefore, there is no emergency, although some actors, such as the Elevator Federation, have already warned that this could be a problem: many elevators still use 2G or 3G for emergency calls. A warning quickly dismissed by the French Telecommunications Federation, which explained that, at 35 years old, 2G had come to an end: “This extinction is not a surprise,” recalled Romain Bonenfant, its general director at Tech&Co.
Beyond the very extended calendar, the other reason to put things in perspective is known: the number of devices incompatible with 4G is particularly low. All phones now have a 4G modem inside, even the “dumb phone” models, which only serve to call or send SMS and are therefore not smartphones.
A low percentage of affected users
Contacted by Tech&Co, Orange explains that the number of users with a device only compatible with 2G continues to decrease over the years (-20% annually): currently, only 2% of subscribers are in this situation. According to Orange, 3% of subscribers currently have a 3G-compatible device.
If the end of 2G within a year could therefore eliminate a few thousand devices – in particular older “non-smart” phones – the few 3G mobile users could well have replaced their devices in 2028.
However, why should we stop 2G and 3G networks? The reason is simple: save money. Technologies are evolving rapidly – we already talked about 6G – forcing operators to have to take into account both networks that are several decades old, as well as much younger ones.
If the elimination of old devices could have ecological consequences, the evolution towards more modern and much more economical networks in electrical consumption is also highlighted by operators, such as Arcep, which considers that “the migration of 2G/3G technologies to 4G/5G technologies allow for a continuous and regularly recurring increase in electricity consumption.
Source: BFM TV
