this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2025
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Why most countries are struggling to shut down 2G. (restofworld.org)
submitted 4 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
77 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Global leap to 4G and 5G would cut off phone access for millions of vulnerable people.

  • Telecom companies aim to profit from the 2G-to-5G transition as governments worldwide face pressure to free up mobile spectrum.
  • Vietnam is the latest country to shut down 2G by offering free 4G phones to the poor.
  • India and South Africa have expressed concern that the strategy would cut off phone access for millions of vulnerable people.
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[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (7 children)

We switched off 3G this year in the UK and my brothers phone stopped being able to make calls. He was using a 6 year old high-end Android phone, but it was from just before the cutoff where you could turn on VoLTE (calls over 4G).

Thankfully, I had a spare phone from the next year after that to hand him, and that one could work with some hidden menu (the type you type into your dialer) hacking.

[–] madis@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Why couldn't you turn off 3G on that old phone via that same hidden menu? Or how come the phone didn't even recognize that it can fall back to 2G...

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

~~2G is also gone.~~ Edit: it's not gone just yet. Not sure why the phone didn't try to fall back to 2G.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/3g-switch-off/

The old phone was a couple years into 4G existing but before we started to send voice over it.

I assume it just wasn't in the OS-level code. It only went up to Android 11. We could have tried LineageOS but that would have required a bunch of work including wiping the phone.

Either way, we checked and the option just wasn't there.

[–] ladfrombrad@lemdro.id 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Were they / are they on the 3 network?

If so, that's why because 3 has never had a 2G network at all ;)

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

That must be it!

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

alt roms often add support for volte if the phone supports 4G, because it's just a software thing

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

alt roms often add support for volte if the phone supports 4G, because it's just a software thing

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