3G shutdown: check your phones

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#3458433 3-Feb-2026 16:02

grantius: Wonder when they'll add the bandwidth to their b8 LTE - still showing only 5mhz on b8 here.

Different band, but I believe 2DM has already been shifting 3G B1 2100 across to LTE. In West Auckland they used to have 10MHz of LTE and 10MHz of 3G. Yesterday I noticed they now have 20MHz of B1 LTE (not sure when it moved though).

I'd love to know why they didn't do that years ago and squish what little 3G remained down into B8. Surely that would have reduced the pressure to go full cold-turkey on 3G.

boosacnoodle

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#3458452 3-Feb-2026 16:37

tripper1000:

Different band, but I believe 2DM has already been shifting 3G B1 2100 across to LTE. In West Auckland they used to have 10MHz of LTE and 10MHz of 3G. Yesterday I noticed they now have 20MHz of B1 LTE (not sure when it moved though).

I'd love to know why they didn't do that years ago and squish what little 3G remained down into B8. Surely that would have reduced the pressure to go full cold-turkey on 3G.

Some phones did not have the requisite LTE band 28 or any number of other configurations. 3G on 2100 MHz is (was?) a band pretty much universally supported previously. Made sense to keep it on for compatibility reasons, if not for coverage / capacity reasons also.

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#3458459 3-Feb-2026 16:51

tripper1000:

Different band, but I believe 2DM has already been shifting 3G B1 2100 across to LTE. In West Auckland they used to have 10MHz of LTE and 10MHz of 3G. Yesterday I noticed they now have 20MHz of B1 LTE (not sure when it moved though).

2degrees started using 10 MHz of 2100 MHz allocated to TŪ ĀTEA LIMITED a couple of months or maybe even a year ago (I'm also not sure when) bringing their total usage up to 25 MHz. Before that they only used 15 MHz from which they used for 5 MHz of U2100 and 10 MHz of L2100. With the addition of the Tū Ātea spectrum they increased their L2100 from 10 MHz to 20 MHz at some sites (while some are still 10 MHz but possibly this is no longer the case). This interestingly leaves 5 MHz of ex-U2100 spectrum post-3G-switchoff that I speculate might be used for satellite LTE. This is noted on my Frequency Usage page.

boosacnoodle

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#3458489 3-Feb-2026 20:26

Seems to be independently confirmed now that Spark has switched on 5G SA in Palmerston North. Roll on the upgrades...

grantius

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#3458522 4-Feb-2026 04:40

boosacnoodle:

Seems to be independently confirmed now that Spark has switched on 5G SA in Palmerston North. Roll on the upgrades...

If you change the filter on cellmapped to 2degrees one users uploaded dozens of towers in the last few weeks showing SA capabilities 😶

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#3458527 4-Feb-2026 07:58

Probably more errors TBH. It's why I don't really use cellmapper anymore.

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boosacnoodle

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#3458559 4-Feb-2026 09:03

grantius:

If you change the filter on cellmapped to 2degrees one users uploaded dozens of towers in the last few weeks showing SA capabilities 😶

Presumably if it's live in the wild on 2d, someone here could confirm as it's public info now?

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#3458564 4-Feb-2026 09:19

boosacnoodle:

grantius:

If you change the filter on cellmapped to 2degrees one users uploaded dozens of towers in the last few weeks showing SA capabilities 😶

Presumably if it's live in the wild on 2d, someone here could confirm as it's public info now?

@Presumably I doubt it @SaltyNZ can confirm?

scottjpalmer

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#3458572 4-Feb-2026 09:25

Let's keep this thread to 3G shutdown, SA is a different topic.

boosacnoodle

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#3458576 4-Feb-2026 09:28

Only mentioned as it seemed related to areas where 3G has been, or was planned for, shutdown.

Rikkitic

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#3458619 4-Feb-2026 10:55

I don’t make much use of phones and I don’t know much about them. I acquired one last year for the first time just to have for emergencies and essential appointments as I am elderly. The phone is a Cat B40 and I am on Skinny. It has Volte and I checked several times that it would continue working after the 3g shutdown. Each time I was assured it was fine. However when I switched it on this morning, I noticed a message that it was searching for networks and then a message that I could only make emergency calls on it. The miniscule icons are almost impossible to make out, but it no longer shows volte as it used to. I am not sure what is going on here. I don’t know if this is just a glitch or if it is related to the 3G shutdown. I looked on the Skinny site but it is fairly useless. Can anyone help me figure out what is going on here? I am feeling very much out of my depth.

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Behodar

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#3458622 4-Feb-2026 10:57

The Skinny shutdown isn't until the end of March. Whatever is happening with your phone is unrelated.

Edit: If I recall correctly, you're near Hastings. The outage map is showing some outages around there: are you in the affected area?

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#3458624 4-Feb-2026 11:01

@Rikkitic As above SparkNZ 3G shutdown has not started. When did you last topup up the Skinny number has the number expired?

Rikkitic

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#3458632 4-Feb-2026 11:19

Behodar:

The Skinny shutdown isn't until the end of March. Whatever is happening with your phone is unrelated.

Edit: If I recall correctly, you're near Hastings. The outage map is showing some outages around there: are you in the affected area?

Thanks heaps. That is the issue. I just assumed it was the 3g shutdown, especially since 2d had just pulled the plug. Damned coincidences!

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Rikkitic

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#3458636 4-Feb-2026 11:20

Linux:

@Rikkitic As above SparkNZ 3G shutdown has not started. When did you last topup up the Skinny number has the number expired?

Thanks, topup ok. Apparently just a network fault.

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