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Verizon Confirms That It Will No Longer Activate 3G Phones (droid-life.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sign-of-the-times dept.

According to Droid Life, Verizon is no longer activating 3G-only phones. Instead, they will only accept 4G LTE-equipped phones going forward. Here's what Verizon had to say about the matter: "For several years we've been been publicly saying that our 3G CDMA network will remain available through the end of 2019. Virtually all traffic on our network is on our 4G LTE network. To facilitate a smooth transition to 4G LTE capable products and services, we are no longer allowing devices that are not 4G LTE capable to be activated on our network." From the report: Now, as is noted in the statement above, Verizon has committed to shutting down its 3G CDMA network by the end of 2019. They also stopped selling 3G devices some time ago, I believe, and even started selling LTE-only flip phones to replace them. [...] On a related note, an earlier leak suggested that Verizon may stop some older LTE devices from being activated too. The documentation there said that CDMA devices as well as devices that do not support HD Voice or VoLTE will not be accepted.

14 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Data logging by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    I use 2G and 3G systems for my data logging projects. They are much cheaper. Eventually I am afraid I will need to use a full 4G LTE system (at least in the US).

    1. Re:Data logging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you managed to deal with moving from telegraph to telephone, I'm sure you'll handle this transition as well.

    2. Re:Data logging by mjwx · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I use 2G and 3G systems for my data logging projects. They are much cheaper. Eventually I am afraid I will need to use a full 4G LTE system (at least in the US).

      As you specified "at least in the US" you're probably living in a country that chose GSM from the very begining. Verizon does not have a "3G" GSM network such as HSPA, they went with CDMA which was a slower, more dead end technology. They're one of the last networks to get rid of it.

      If you want to use 3G GSM devices in the US, you need to go with AT&T as they're the only company that implemented an internationally compatible version of 3G GSM.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    3. Re:Data logging by vtcodger · · Score: 4, Informative

      Telegraphs and telephones largely do different things. Roughly, telephony is voice. Telegraphy is text. The two existed in parallel for about a century. What killed telegraphy wasn't telephony. It was satellite communications,the Internet, and the widespread availability of PCs and modems that allowed cheap, reliable, digital communications via the telephone voice network.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    4. Re:Data logging by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Interesting

      CDMA is not dead. Current LTE is a more advanced version of CDMA and called something else because Qualcomm submitted it to a standards body.

      LTE has no relationship at all with CDMA - neither the Qualcomm standard or the air interface concept. It didn't originate from Qualcomm. Indeed Qualcomm initially worked on a rival system before throwing in the towel. LTE is the fourth generation of GSM.

      what you call GSM is the old voice only TDMA tech which was competing with CDMA for voice

      No, he said 3G GSM. Only one version of GSM, 2G GSM, uses a time division multiple access air interface. 3G used W-CDMA, a code division multiple access air interface unrelated to that used in Qualcomm's standards but similar. 4G GSM is LTE and uses an OFDMA air interface.

      It's amazing how many people out there still can't get over the fact that CDMA wasn't actually a good standard, and that Qualcomm's version in particular was awful and a dead end.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    5. Re:Data logging by msauve · · Score: 2

      GSM used TDMA, competing with Qualcomm's CDMA in some locations. Eventually, GSM (standardized by ETSI) networks changed to UMTS (standardized by 3GPP) which used CDMA modulation in recognition of its benefits. (about the same time, CDMA, the air interface, moved to CDMA2000).

      Now both are moving to LTE, which is based on OFDM modulation.

      Although it's common to colloquially include UMTS and LTE in GSM, technically, GSM is going away (if not gone already) - neither UMTS nor LTE are part of GSM, and LTE is certainly not "the '4th' (3.5th actually) generation of the GSM standard." The GP was correct in saying that GSM is TDMA tech.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  2. Really? by demon+driver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Funny! I have several persons in my circle of friends and acquaintances who still use 2G phones and don't want anything else. And why should they? Why should someone need to use the internet at all with their mobile phone? But then again telcos won't try to switch them off anytime soon in the country where I live, I guess.

    1. Re:Really? by kerashi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This will hit old people with flip phones the hardest. My dad uses one of these, he has one particular model he likes, and it naturally is not a 4g phone. He doesn't need a smart phone, given his tendency to leave it unplugged for days and the fact that he is so computer illiterate that he has trouble with digital gas pumps (he's bought a few car washes that he didn't want trying to get it to print a receipt). And I have an elderly friend who has an earlier version of the same phone, probably over 10 years old and still going. But I guess they aren't profitable enough to care about, compared to those on the smartphone upgrade treadmill.

  3. "all traffic on our network is on our 4G network" by Cornwallis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Bullshit.

    I was in a very touristy area of New Hampshire last week and got access to nothing BUT 3G.

  4. Re:"all traffic on our network is on our 4G networ by TFlan91 · · Score: 2

    Welcome to New Hampshire...

    You'll only get decent coverage near Manchester, Concord, Hampton (seacoast area, but not Rye or North Hampton) and Portsmouth / Dover areas...

  5. Freq refarming for 5G and high cost of infrastruct by williamyf · · Score: 2

    Most operators around the world, specially in developed countries, are planning to shutdown 2G and 3G services. The sunsetting is expected in most of the world between 2020 and 2025

    Some operators on the loosing side of 3G (CDMA2000-EVDO and TD-SCDMA) are shooting down 3G first, and then 2G. Other operators are shooting down 2G first, keeping 3G to support Voice, in order not to pay for VoLTE Licenses. Yet others plan to keep 2G in a restricted mode for M2M Communications (think smart meters, IoT, etc.).

    This is actually a Good thing. We had 3 standards for 2G (GSM, IS-54/136 a.k.a. TDMA and IS-135 a.k.a. CDMA2000), then we had 3 3G standards (CDMA2000-EVDO, WCDMA and TD-SCDMA). Then we had two (or three, depending on how you count) standards for 4G (802.16m a.k.a. WiMax, FDD-LTE and TDD-LTE ).

    You can imagine how crowded a radio shelter is nowadays. How much electricity it consumes, how much heat it generates, and how costly the O&M contracts and logistics of all that gear is...

    And how crowded the spectrum is as well since the spectrum tends to be very expensive.

    With (hopefully) only one 5G standard, and sunseting of all 2G and 3G networks, more harmonization worldwide is possible, which leads to simpler radio modems (the end Game is TDD-LTE + 5G), and cheaper equipment. Also, spectrum that is currently used for 2G and 3G can be refarmend for 4G and 5G, leading to better service.

    this should be seen as a welcome development.

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
  6. A welcome development? by Viol8 · · Score: 2

    "this should be seen as a welcome development."

    Why should it? I still use a 2G feature phone since it does everything I need, i can operate it without looking at the screen and while wearing gloves and the battery lasts over a week on standby. What is so welcome about me having to spend money on a phone with 4G when I don't need the functionality?

  7. Re:"all traffic on our network is on our 4G networ by vtcodger · · Score: 2

    "Well, in Vermont they don't work at all "

    Not so. There are several places in Vermont where if you stand in the right spot and hold your phone just so, you can sometimes get one or even two bars on your cell phone.

    Seriously, cell phone coverage in Vermont used to be pretty bad to nonexistent. But for the past decade or so, it's been much improved. Heck, in some places you can even get a signal indoors these days.

    --
    You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
  8. GSM is 2G, LTE Advanced is 4G by martrootamm · · Score: 2

    I'm not disagreeing, but trying to point this out as a service to other readers:

    From the Cellular network standards navbox at Wikipedia

    E: Europe / the world;
    A: Americas, including the U.S.

    2G:
    E: GSM
    A: cdmaOne (IS-95), D-AMPS (IS-54 and IS-136)

    2G transitional (2.5G, 2.75G):
    E: GPRS, EDGE/EGPRS, Evolved EDGE (little-used / not implemented)
    A: CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 1X Advanced

    3G:
    E: UMTS;
    A: CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Release 0 (TIA/IS-856) (May have also been adopted in Europe, but I'll assume not in favour of plain HSPA.)

    3G transitional (3.5G, 3.75G, 3.9G):
    E: HSPA (HSDPA, HSUPA), HSPA+, LTE (plain; E-UTRA) (partial adoption in the U.S., and not on all networks)
    A: CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A, EV-DO Revision B
    Other: Mobile WiMAX (802.16e), iBurst (802.20), WiBro (South Korea)

    4G:
    E: LTE Advanced (E-UTRA), LTE Advanced Pro
    A: At this point, the Americas and the United States seem to have moved to harmonise their standards with the rest of the world. I think.