I remember an article a couple of years ago that mentioned 2020 as the shut off date.  Guess they will keep the 2G telemetry stuff working for a few years yet..  Now this will be a pain with dual SIM phones  that only run GSM on the second SIM..

about time. Although once it's off, it will really expose how thin and crispy 3g and 4g are...

Bet it will take a few people "by surprise" in the same way Telecom switching off the old 025 network did years ago :P

It's fairly likely a lot of networks around the world could ultimately shut down 3G before they shut down GSM - this gives them a fallback voice solution which GSM is perfectly adequate for, but will allow reuse of 3G spectrum for 4.5G / 5G services.

The Stuff article mentioned 2025 for the ultimate shutdown of the GSM network, so I suspect they'll move GSM to a single 5MHz carrier, disable voice, and free up some 900MHz spectrum that can be reused for other purposes.

sbiddle:

 

The Stuff article mentioned 2025 for the ultimate shutdown of the GSM network, so I suspect they'll move GSM to a single 5MHz carrier, disable voice, and free up some 900MHz spectrum that can be reused for other purposes.

 

 

 

I've been told you can run a carrier or two of GSM inside a LTE (4g) transmission. So you can have all your 900 MHz spectrum for 4G and still have a couple of GSM connections running at the same time. 

knoydart:

 

sbiddle:

 

The Stuff article mentioned 2025 for the ultimate shutdown of the GSM network, so I suspect they'll move GSM to a single 5MHz carrier, disable voice, and free up some 900MHz spectrum that can be reused for other purposes.

 

 

 

 

I've been told you can run a carrier or two of GSM inside a LTE (4g) transmission. So you can have all your 900 MHz spectrum for 4G and still have a couple of GSM connections running at the same time. 

 

Why would you want to do that for??

sbiddle:

 

It's fairly likely a lot of networks around the world could ultimately shut down 3G before they shut down GSM - this gives them a fallback voice solution which GSM is perfectly adequate for, but will allow reuse of 3G spectrum for 4.5G / 5G services.

 

The Stuff article mentioned 2025 for the ultimate shutdown of the GSM network, so I suspect they'll move GSM to a single 5MHz carrier, disable voice, and free up some 900MHz spectrum that can be reused for other purposes.

 

Well the electricity gentailers will certainly be hoping it works out like that.
If GSM 2G were to go off in 2025, that would give them less - in many cases much less - than twenty years life for their current generation 'smart' meters.
Twenty years may seem like a lot, but when I worked in the electricity industry, the old rotating-disk meters were reckoned to be good for at least forty years. We didn't even have a specified life for them, we reckoned houses would get burned down / massively remodelled / moved on the back of a truck sufficiently often that this would provide an adequate meter-change frequency.

Taking that into context, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Vodafone has very long-term contractual commitments to providing GPRS / 2G data services to the electricity industry.

antoniosk:

 

about time. Although once it's off, it will really expose how thin and crispy 3g and 4g are...

 

Maybe they would consider what Vodafone AU did and deploy 3G on 850mhz?

old3eyes:

 

Guess they will keep the 2G telemetry stuff working for a few years yet..  

 

Would that include text messaging? My current alarm supports 2G only.

tchart:

 

old3eyes:

 

Guess they will keep the 2G telemetry stuff working for a few years yet..  

 

 

 

 

Would that include text messaging? My current alarm supports 2G only.

 

I suspect not but JohnR may know more..

So with my mobile broadband connection (either Vodafone smart phone connected to laptop via bluetooth, or 4G Pocket Wifi), if I can't obtain a connection to the 3G or 4G network (and I am presuming here if 2G is available, it connects to that otherwise says 'no connection available'), then without 2G to fall onto, 'no connection available' will result?

tchart:

 

old3eyes:

 

Guess they will keep the 2G telemetry stuff working for a few years yet..  

 

 

 

 

Would that include text messaging? My current alarm supports 2G only.

 

I would suspect so, all that would remain would be GPRS capability or simply locking down the network to registered devices.

I'm surprised that no NZ networks have introduced voLTE.

ajw:

I'm surprised that no NZ networks have introduced voLTE.