A window into a 3G Free World: Testing Vodafone UK's 3G switch off in Hull!

[@troysright]

Great Video , Thanks .

[@scivids1999]

Thank you!

[@faryalrabbani9537]

Great to see you back on old stomping grounds!

[@oldblueshirtguy]

It's interesting that Vodafone now have HD voice on 2G. Peter do you happen to know anything about the very long ongoing HD voice issue with calls from EE to Three (calls the other way from Three to EE are fine)? This means that anyone on Three with a number ported from EE can't get HD Voice calls from any other network (other than Three) and EE customers can't call any Three numbers in HD Voice unless the Three customer ported from O2 or Vodafone! Ironically, this now means if you have an EE number, Vodafone has become the best network for call quality.

[@ryanfraley7113]

Over here in the US we had 3G decommissioning occur through 2022. I am not sure the rural coverage is as good, especially on Verizon as there was a significant coverage hit from CDMA2000 to LTE. Sure, data was dog slow on that network; but calling was super reliable.

[@karlellisdon4k]

when is London being switched off on Vodafone I heard its around Christmas

[@davewestrup2420]

Good to see you back Peter, good informative video 👍

[@thisisjmx]

Goodbye old 3G UMTS & 3.9G HSPA. I presume that they are making good use of the 2100mhz band for more 4G coverage then.

[@moormoor4281]

Thanks

[@James_Knott]

I'm on Rogers, in Canada, and it's been years since I was on 3G. I've had a 4G or 5G phones for over 10 years now. Rogers has shut down 3G on 1.9 GHz, but has yet to announce a shut down date for 850 MHz. These days, the question is whether I'll get 3.5 GHz C band or not. I almost always get at least 5G, only occasionally dropping down to 4G.

[@confetti199]

Bosnia still has UMTS and HSPA/HSPA+ in 2024 on all 3 networks (BH Mobile, ERONET, and m:tel)

[@dave6018]

Any chance of doing an round up of networks in 2023 , I'm currently with EE but cost is getting ridiculous and I was looking at 3, so wondering what you thoughts would be or in fact I'm open to advice from anybody ?

[@scivids1999]

Regarding 2023 roundups it's potentially on the cards - the difficulty is time really. For which network to move to my recommendation would depend on where you go, what you're looking for and such.

[@TheSpotify95]

Three works great where they've upgraded their 4G and 5G services, but in a lot of areas they still haven't upgraded their 4G, or even rolled out 4G at all. It really depends on the local area. Where I live, 3 has 4G and 5G and can do 100Mbps+ on just its 4G, using multiple 4G bands to do the job. (I can't test 5G yet as I don't have a 5G device.) But when I went on holiday, in an area that has EE 4G B3/B20 and Vod/O2 4G B20, Three only had 3G on the mast, with some fringe 4G B28 from another mast - resulting in lower coverage (+cell breathing) and lower data speeds.

[@gavinnorthants]

Noticed Vodafone have turned off 3G in my area now. When I put my phone in 3G and 2G mode, the phone only connected to 2G. Also when I checked Vodafone coverage checker webpage, for 3G coverage. There was no coverage for 3G across the country, as was blank. Is this the case?

[@ChristopherJennings0]

From some of the comments you see online you'd be convinced the UK has much greater 3G coverage than 4G and that swathes of people will be left offline when the switch happens. I think what's more likely is now handsets will just stay on 4G even if the signal is weak. But that's a better experience overall - 3G to 4G handbacks have always been a bit rubbish. I'm sure a simpler, 3Gless network will be a better experience overall

[@James_Knott]

5G is in large part an extension of 4G, where they can both share the same spectrum with dynamic spectrum sharing. This allocates bandwidth between them on a demand basis. That was not possible with 3G or 2G, as they were completely different systems.

[@LunaWuna]

The first provider to shut off 3g in Australia will be next month, im curious how flawlwss it will be considering how many (particularly older) people use devices without volte

[@LunaWuna]

Especially since we don't have 2G at all

[@gavinnorthants]

Just did a speed test on 3G with Lebara, which runs on Vodafone in the UK and got 10Meg. I remember when 4G came out and was so relieved, as 3G was so slow due to congestion. I will not miss 3G as never use it, and 4G coverage is good enough not to need it. However, the nostalgic part of me might miss 3G even if it makes no sense!

[@jkgiygigoiuholjojouihgiygf1952]

I use 2g only mode on my s23.

[@williamwilbur]

Hearing some horror stories about this switch off now it is across the country. Are you concerned, Peter?

[@lukedavis436]

i will be quite sad, but maybe there will be a way to setup a personal sort of 3G Network in my house, low powered of course, don't wanna microwave my brains!

[@TheSpotify95]

I wish there was a way of doing this, to keep 3G devices alive. The Home Signal boxes from various networks used to do this, if you were in an area of no phone coverage, the Home Signal box would use your Wi-Fi/Broadband to transmit a 3G data signal. Unfortunately these have been made redundant and obsolete by the use of 4G on lower frequencies (and increased coverage of 4G).

[@lukedavis436]

@@TheSpotify95 that's unfortunate but maybe there's a way of reverse engineering the hardware?

[@burhanbudak6041]

Here is an idea, do a test on EVS-FullBand

[@U_H89]

Was there anybody using 3G?!? 😉 I mean most people tried to avoid 3G... Who didn't find '4G/5G only' mode?!? 🤔

[@scivids1999]

I would suspect only a minority of people know about disabling 3G!

[@TheSpotify95]

On some networks, 4G/5G only mode would also disable VoLTE and therefore result in no calls coming through. I know EE used to do this on my S7 Edge and S9+. Some networks also seem to aggressively drop you to 3G, I know Vodafone drop you to 3G when the 4G hits about -120dBm (and 3G 900 is usually stronger than 4G 800 by some margin in these areas). So despite the limited bandwidth being used by 3G (before it was switched off in certain areas), people are still using it. My personal phone mode of choice is LTE/WCDMA, which basically means allowing 3G and 4G signals only (my phone doesn't support 5G). This was, and still is, very useful for blocking the old 2G signals as some devices pick a stronger 2G signal over a weaker 3/4/5G signal, with data rates over 2G being utterly horrific. When I last used 2G, even audio streaming on apps like Spotify and Tunein Radio failed miserably.

[@shaurz]

Will old 3G bands be re-purposed for 4/5G?

[@jkgiygigoiuholjojouihgiygf1952]

Yes

[@Chad19996]

Not everywhere

[@James_Knott]

Yes, they already are. I'm on Rogers, in Canada, and their 1.9 GHz band was first used for 2G and then 3G. It's now 4G. Some of their 4G bands are now shared with 5G. 2G & 3G are still working on 850 MHz.