{"id":592954,"date":"2023-01-01T05:49:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T11:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/01\/farewell-to-3g\/"},"modified":"2023-01-01T05:49:52","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T11:49:52","slug":"farewell-to-3g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/01\/farewell-to-3g\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to 3G"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s well and truly curtains for 3G, one of the key technologies that helped usher in the age of the smartphone. Throughout December, Verizon has been disconnecting its customers who were still using the tech, cutting off their phones\u2019 ability to use data, make calls, and send texts. It was the last major US carrier to do so \u2014 AT&T turned off its 3G service<\/a> in February, and T-Mobile started winding its old networks down<\/a> the month after.<\/p>\n

Verizon customers with 3G devices have had plenty of warning. It previously said the network would be going offline in 2019, but with one delay after another, the date has slowly been pushed back to December 31st, 2022<\/a>. In the meantime, it\u2019s sent people new, LTE-capable phones<\/a>, as well as letters explaining exactly what\u2019s going to happen. Verizon has told customers with 3G devices that their lines will be suspended starting the day before their December billing cycle begins, according to Fierce Wireless<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n

Even after that, until the day before their February billing cycle, they\u2019ll still be able to use the phones for two things: calling 911 and Verizon customer service. <\/p>\n

While 3G will still exist<\/a> in other countries<\/a> for quite a few more years, Verizon\u2019s deadline is pretty much the end of the line for it here in the US. The tech hasn\u2019t gone gentle into that good night; carriers delayed<\/a> their shutdowns several times<\/a>, there were tiffs between Dish and T-Mobile<\/a>, and you can\u2019t just turn a network that had been around for years off without things starting to break. <\/p>\n

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(Some notable examples: some connected cars<\/a> and trucks<\/a> have been pushed offline, as have parking meters<\/a> and older Kindles<\/a>. AT&T\u2019s shutdown was even blamed for delays in reporting voting results<\/a> in Michigan this year.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Part of the reason carriers are decommissioning their networks is to help build their new ones. As we saw earlier this month, T-Mobile\u2019s latest and greatest 5G tech makes use of spectrum that was once part of its 3G network<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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I certainly won\u2019t miss 3G. But I\u2019m glad it existed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s easy to brush off the end of 3G. After all, that\u2019s just what happens to technology, right? The old stuff gives way to the new stuff as it becomes increasingly less useful \u2014 if you\u2019ve recently had the misfortune of your phone dropping all the way down to 3G because of a lack of coverage, you\u2019ll know that the network definitely wasn\u2019t providing anything close to the experience we\u2019ve come to expect. <\/p>\n

But despite its outdatedness, I think we should bid it a fond farewell and remember it for what it once was, not what it\u2019s become. The first 3G phones started appearing in the early 2000s, but in the US, the network really came into its own with the rise of the smartphone. <\/p>\n

As people started getting phones like the iPhone 3G or HTC Dream (aka the T-Mobile G1), the benefits of having a fast (for the time) internet connection became obvious. Web browsing on the go was no longer a niche activity for people with specific business phones but something an increasing number of people were doing every day, while access to images and music on the go changed the way we interact with media. <\/p>\n

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And for the few years before phones touting LTE<\/a> (or other doomed alternatives like WiMAX<\/a>) started hitting the market, 3G was the best way to do that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s not to argue that we should still keep it around \u2014 I\u2019d be way too late even if I thought that was the best move. I\u2019m just asking you to spare a thought for the tech that helped build the mobile-first world we live in; even if this ends up being the last time you ever think about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Mitchell Clark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s well and truly curtains for 3G, one of the key technologies that helped usher in the age of the smartphone. Throughout December, Verizon has been disconnecting its customers who were still using the tech, cutting off their phones\u2019 ability to use data, make calls, and send texts. It was the last major US carrier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4620,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-592954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-farewell","8":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}