AT&T pulls plug on 2G network, ending cellular data for Apple's 2007 iPhone
U.S carrier AT&T has announced the shutdown of its 2G network, in the process killing off support for some older phones -- including Apple's original iPhone, which didn't offer any faster cellular options.
The change actually took effect on Jan. 1, AT&T said. Plans were first revealed four years ago, and the carrier has been since been migrating people to 3G and 4G devices, sometimes offering them at a discount or for free.
AT&T said that its goal is to open up more cellular spectrum "for future network technologies, including 5G," though in the short term, it will allocate bandwidth towards 4G LTE.
In the U.S. 2G has largely become a fallback data technology for phones in rural areas, as most towns and cities are thoroughly covered by 4G or at least 3G.
When it launched in 2007, the first iPhone took some criticism for operating only on 2G cellular, as 3G was already in service and offered far faster speeds, potentially very useful for the mobile version of Safari. Apple didn't offer 3G until the following year's model, and iPhones remained an AT&T exclusive in the U.S. until a Verizon version of the iPhone 4 shipped in Feb. 2011.
With the end of AT&T's 2G network, owners of original U.S. iPhones will have to use Wi-Fi to do anything on the internet. Apple itself, however, has officially declared the device obsolete, and the latest OS release it supports is iOS 3, which virtually all developers have abandoned.
Apple celebrated 10 years since the unveiling of the first-generation iPhone last week. The iconic device was shown off onstage at the 2007 Macworld expo by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.
The change actually took effect on Jan. 1, AT&T said. Plans were first revealed four years ago, and the carrier has been since been migrating people to 3G and 4G devices, sometimes offering them at a discount or for free.
AT&T said that its goal is to open up more cellular spectrum "for future network technologies, including 5G," though in the short term, it will allocate bandwidth towards 4G LTE.
In the U.S. 2G has largely become a fallback data technology for phones in rural areas, as most towns and cities are thoroughly covered by 4G or at least 3G.
When it launched in 2007, the first iPhone took some criticism for operating only on 2G cellular, as 3G was already in service and offered far faster speeds, potentially very useful for the mobile version of Safari. Apple didn't offer 3G until the following year's model, and iPhones remained an AT&T exclusive in the U.S. until a Verizon version of the iPhone 4 shipped in Feb. 2011.
With the end of AT&T's 2G network, owners of original U.S. iPhones will have to use Wi-Fi to do anything on the internet. Apple itself, however, has officially declared the device obsolete, and the latest OS release it supports is iOS 3, which virtually all developers have abandoned.
Apple celebrated 10 years since the unveiling of the first-generation iPhone last week. The iconic device was shown off onstage at the 2007 Macworld expo by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.
Comments
Unless I travel to a country where 2G's still operational (e.g., India).
AT&T, Google, Foxconn and the various App developers are just a few companies this one little 2G device made billions of dollars for.
Can you still get the correct size SIM card? I haven't seen one in a while.
It isn't really dead. As long as you carry it with you...
No, seriously, it's not really dead, it just evolved. A lot's changed since then, but the key elements of GSM are still there.
And then, all too soon, it was too small. Really, consumers can be such fickle bastards sometimes.
It only took a mini-SIM. Those are still the standard SIM for a lot of things. My 4G WiFi hotspot takes a mini-SIM.
Now, who remembers the full sized SIM cards? They're the size of that card you punch your mini-, micro-, and/or nano-SIM out of. I remember being impressed that the Motorola Star-Tac managed to fit one inside (other small form factor phones had already started using mini-SIMs).
I received a letter from Nissan about the fact that ATT is turning off the 2G network Dec 31, 2016 which will result in CarWings going offline. We will not be able to use the Nissan app to communicate with the LEAF.
Nissan want $195 for the upgrade.
Here is my take. I am leasing the car. It belongs to Nissan. The lease expires the end of May 2017. Why should I have to pay for the upgrade? It was Nissan's choice to fail to upgrade to the 3G or 4G network. 3G has been around for over 10 years.
I strongly advise owners to resist Nissan's effort to extort payment for what is clearly their mistake in failing to install the latest technology in an EV!
i guess it's time to upgrade.
So you can blame Marketing departments for wanting to go "no we offer a better 3G network" for the confusion. Inside AT&T Wireless, the GSM network was always referred to as 2.5G or 3G, depending on who you talked to. The UMTS devices were the real 3G devices, but, again due to marketing, the EDGE service was also considered 3G, even though it actually belonged to the 2G network and talked "GSM", where as UMTS talked WCDMA.
What is being shutdown is the GSM/GPRS/EDGE service. This is happening in harmony with other North American GSM services (eg Rogers Wireless in Canada) Will shut down theirs in 2018. CDMA carriers/former-carriers (eg Telus, Bell, Sprint, Verizon) were also expected to shut down their 2G/3G CDMA networks in 2017-2019 as well. However the thing that needs to be mentioned , at least in Canada, is that Telus and Bell migrated to GSM/HSPDA (3G/3.5G) in order to serve the Olympics in 2010 (what use was an official wireless carrier that nobody outside Canada could use due to not supporting GSM?) So they actually jumped-ship from CDMA earlier than Verizon did. Verizon was the last party to the GSM-evolution table and adopted LTE while everyone else other than Sprint was already using it. Sprint still had the baggage from supporting WiMax and ultimately having to eat that cost.
Which brings us full circle to Apple. Apple's first three phones (the iPhone, iPhone 3G and 3GS) are named such for marketing purposes. The iphone 3G,3GS,4 and 4S all support at most UMTS/HSDPA, so when AT&T/T-Mobile and such decide to turn off support for UMTS, then those models will no longer work too.
This actually has more impact on devices that have a permanent GSM radio in them, like OnStar. Up until 2014, OnStar relied on the Verizon (or Bell Canada) CDMA network. So if you have OnStar in your car, and your car was built before 2014, you likely will lose access to it unless GM retrofits the radios with LTE. By 2019 I expect most car manufacturers will have standardized on a LTE-family radio with WiFi fallback/fallforward (eg use the mobile phones WiFi in the car for telematics if no radio built into the car, or use an attached USB modem.)