2G and 3G Shutdown

Even in Dubai, they have other apps.

And it’s not many using whatsapp calls through VPN already.
Even Skype is banned for voice calls.
But as GCC implements VAT and as cost of living rises, regulators would be forced to allow OTT voice calls.
Sooner or later, cellular operators would be forced to pivot their business.
There’s not much left in telecom services business.
It’s over once and for all.

Using VPN to circumvent government regulations is a crime. :neutral_face:

Some below points.(Customer MCI, Tehran)

  1. Customer is not interested to put investment on U21 anymore, Most of the old U21 Units are RRUS01(80W) not supports MIMO
  2. Mostly Rollouts are coming on U9, L18(Coverage), L26(Capacity).
  3. LTE UE% is still 70% with payload.
  4. 3G Voice Traffic is 70% over GSM, VoLTE penetration is still negligible.

few countries like this which has political issues and has lower penetration for VoLTE, we have to rely on 3G as There is no TRX Growing anymore.

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Hi,
Can L21 be on aired with nearby same frequency U21 on aired, as both frequencies are being used in DL.?

3G Shutdown, Challenges and factors, Shutdown roadmap, Risks:

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Here you can find a nice article explaining that the arrival of 5G will eliminate 2G and 3G networks, freeing the spectrum they occupy for other uses:

Vodafone in Germany will switch off its #3G-network in June 2021. They will gradually reduce 3G radio resources and turn them into #4G.
:wave:t3::wave:t3: Bye, Bye #3G.

It’s international trend i think.
But the major problem that operators will be faced too is how to deploy the spectrum of 2G/3G in 4G and 5G and share spectrum between between 4G and 5G (refarming and DSS) in absence of technology neutral licensing in some countries.
The regulators must follow the evolution of technologies.

It depends on different business and technical factors :

  • VoLTE deployment to guarantee good QOS for voice and care about SRVCC in the areas without VoLTE.
  • 3G capable devices vs 4G.
  • VoLTE capable devices penetration.
  • CAPEX and OPEX to upgrade or modernize all current 3G sites.
    It’s no easy to say Goodbye to 3G. It’s a big stride :slightly_smiling_face:

2G and 3G will stay for a long time…

GSMA estimates that by 2025, 2G/3G subscriptions will still account for more than 25% of total subscriptions.

As of now only 5% of Telcos are not using 2G/3G networks. Although, more than 100 service providers are in the process of shutting down these legacy networks, there are several factors like support voice services, roaming, IoT devices and emergency services that will make very difficult to completely eliminate them for the next decade.

Carrying legacy networks is especially painful when we look at voice, as Telcos will need to support 2G/3G circuit switched voice and also VoLTE for 4G and 5G (VoNR).

In this webinar, Huawei shares their views on how Telcos can avoid core network market fragmentation by using an IMS multi-technology core platform leveraging on 3GPP TS 23.292 converged 2/3/4/5G access control.

https://view6.workcast.net/register?cpak=5284411524482907

This was one of the debate I had with a industry expert few years back.
Which technology should switch off first, 2G or 3G?
Obviously it is 3G.

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I agree. It needs lots of hardware and lots of optimisation actions.

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Not only OPEX point of view, re-farming is the biggest win here, also 2G is already is been used as IOT technology without noticing as many advantages over link budget and low power consumption on UE end. So keeping 2G is still worth than 3G.

What is weird for me is that 3G is empty (and has 2-3 layers of 3G) while 4G is congested in many places.
Don’t know why MNOs don’t balance PS data between RATs.

On 3G we have more spectrum than 2G.

Market share.
MNOs want to show that most customer are on 4G.
Also in some countries there are obligations from authorities as well.

This is somehow not OK.
I think it is better to have 30 Mbpsec in 3G then 10 Mbpsec in 4G due to congestion.
Whenever 4G acts slow I just lock my phone in 3G and it works really fast.

Totally agree with you.
But in most cases MNOs use 3G only when 4G is not good or CSFB.
Cannot remember if we ever used InterRAT load balancing.
That might be the answer.

There are 4G cells with 40-60 concurrent users at busy hours.