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.
Well I got the Covid vaccine. I’m screwed I am 5g already.
Well 2g is good because it reaches be further doesn’t it? Say if you’re in the wilderness, there’s a slim chance 2G might work
the 5g standard includes many frequencies, including long range 2g-like ~400Mhz ones
I’m a ham radio operator; it just feels weird hearing someone call 400 MHz “long range.” Above, say, 60 MHz I wouldn’t count on anything beyond line-of-sight anyway, though I suppose the lower in the UHF band you are the more likely you are to punch through leaves and such.
I live outside of a big city in the UK. Many times I can ONLY get 2G.
I’m in a recovery group and someone shared how dangerous 5G was and that they have to move again because there is too much 5G in their area…. I’m still dumbfounded.
I am still baffled by these idiots after I learned how 5g works. It isn’t just frequencies increases (I could see why someone might be sceptical about this one). The main difference is simply using another protocol which allows to send more bits with a single signal.
If there is any thought to it, it usually goes something like “Radio is/was fine because it’s kilo/megahertz, Wifi/5G is gigahertz waves of electromagnetic radiation.(?!?!)”
Could always point to the Terahertz electromagnetic radiation source plugged into their nearest lightbulb socket and ask how that doesn’t hurt them.
Not yet another protocol invading me brain!?? For all I know the different pattern of signal does things to my delicate nets.
I already had to contend with the fridge and garage door
Recovery from brain injury?
/sorry
what benefits does 5g offer over 2g?
5g > 2g if g is positive
Aktchually g gets simplified so it’s 5 > 2 for any value
What if g is zero?
What if g is a complex number?
I don’t believe in such trite charlatanery
“But I’ve learned about imaginary numbers in mathematics degree” well, that and $20 dollars will buy you an egg
The “g” stands for generation. So it’s the 5th iteration of the technology versus the 2nd iteration. Whilst there are many improvements (speed, capacity, security etc) there are some negatives. (I believe mainly to do with signal penetration - i.e. getting a signal in basements, stone wall houses, being behind objects etc.)
Where I’m currently staying I have: 2G, edge, 4G and 5G signals available.
Obviously Internet speed and call quality, plus there are many good technical changes under the hood, such as proper isolation of calls etc.
I think it handles congestion better and saves energy for the cell tower. It’s a good choice for crowded city centres, near university campuses and train stations where many people frequent
lower range. oh you said benefits?
Higher bandwidth
Already unable to make use of 4G’s capabilities, virtually nobody feels the speed of 5G. and I’m not an average user, I’m making use of my uncapped home internet!
I would probably notice the difference if I had cellular home internet, so I could see the use there. Oh my phone, yeah, the only way I can tell is by watching for the icon to change
[Not Serious] 3 numbers more.
Ah, well, my G goes to 11
A big blocker that the article surprisingly doesn’t talk about is tons of IoT stuff that uses 2G and 3G. Stuff like alarm systems, emergency phones, street light control, cars etc. Here in Sweden there was recently a report that thousands of elevators have emergency phones using 2G and 3G, and if the network is shut down you would no longer be allowed to use those elevators. And since 2018 all new cars in the EU has to have eCall, which alerts emergency services on a crash. Many of these use 2G and 3G, and if it stops working the car won’t pass inspection so you’ll no longer be allowed to drive it.
I’m in Sweden too. I was considering buying a used car made in 2023. It uses 2G/3G. It has some connected services I actually wanted to use. And well, the ecall obviously. It’s really not an old car yet, but it becomes obsolete already.
On the manufacturer’s website they say that new car models need to have 4G/5G only by 2026. And starting 2027 all cars sold must have it. 2027 is also when they expect 2G to be fully shut down in the country. This timeline makes no sense for devices with a long life span.
In the website they also say you wouldn’t fail inspection though. But honestly I don’t care too much about that, since I actually care about ecall and some other connected services.
I hope my 2023 car only have it so I can get rid of the spyware in my car. In this case obsolescence feels fine
I have a feeling we’re going to regret a lot of the “From 201x all new cars have to have ibuttfuck.” It’s like paying to be assimilated by the goddamn Borg.
They don’t want to. Stingray devices force a phone to fall back on 2G so they can spy on it.
subsidize 4G and 5G devices and shut off 3G and just leave 2G alone for a while. It’s not like it takes up that much bandwidth. A couple of hundred kilohertz is not going to make a difference on 5G.
You can get like 5 or 10 megahertz off of 3G, which actually would be something worth pulling off and moving to 5G. But the couple hundred kilohertz on 2G is just not going to make that much of a difference.
I think a lot of rural areas in the US still rely on 3G. I’ve definitely seen my phone switch to it out in the sticks
I also know for a fact some of our systems at work that pump liuqid nitrogen still use 3G modems for communicating data
What carrier is this? I know for a fact that T-Mobile has shut down their 3G network and I thought AT&T and Verizon did as well, but I can’t swear to that. I know for a fact that AT&T has already shut down their 2G network though.
Anywhere where a 3G signal would be used, 2G will be used if the 3G is not available.
Gonna be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve been out to the country. I just saw most carriers shut down 3G in 2022. Time flies and all that.
Also now that I think about it, we may have been installing 4G LTE modems on our pumps lately. That customer only buys a few systems a year.
I wonder too, say 3G gets totally shut down in the US. Will new phones still be able to connect to it if I’m traveling outside the US? I was bopping around some small islands in the Pacific last year and was heavily relying on 3G for things like maps.
Well, they shouldn’t turn it off any time soon, just like they don’t turn off analog radio. TV is one I can understand where turning off old methods makes sense, because people upgrade their TVs and use IPTV much more likely anyway.
You update your TV more than your phone? I don’t feel that’s the regular way of things.
You don’t have to upgrade the TV itself. If the TV cannot handle the new format on its own, external box is enough.
You will be surprised how many old people rely on health monitoring devices that use 2G to send basic data.
Not just old people. I had a heart monitor a couple years ago that’s only made for 2G.
Alright maybe I’m getting old but that’s not the point.
When I was visiting the Caribbean they also had a lot of 2G infrastructure still operating.
