[url]http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390443687504577567313211264588-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwMzAwODM3Wj.html[/url]
[quote=Wall Street Journal]AT&T Inc. is shutting down its second-generation, or 2G, wireless networks by 2017 as it continues to upgrade its systems to faster technology and better use its limited airwaves.
The telecom giant said about 12% of its contract wireless customers, or roughly 8.4 million people, were using 2G handsets at the end of June, but it will work "proactively" in coming years to move them to more advanced devices. Like the other major carriers, AT&T's customers mostly use phones with third-generation technology, and it is aggressively rolling out a nationwide fourth-generation network.
With every network generation, the technology becomes more efficient at carrying information. As a result, companies can get better and more profitable usage from shutting down older networks in favor of newer ones, something that AT&T has talked about.
AT&T first introduced the 2G network in the early 1990's, an AT&T spokesman said. Its latest next-generation 4G LTE network began rolling out last September.
The timeline for the 2G shutdown was made in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
An AT&T spokesman said the company no longer sells 2G handsets to contract or prepaid customers. Along with phones, the company does have some other devices connected to its 2G networks, but it also expects that they will transition to more modern technology in coming years.
As the carriers deal with ever increasing data usage on their networks, they also are facing a spectrum shortage to carry all the traffic. Shutting down legacy networks is one part of the plan, along with acquiring new spectrum and finding innovative ways to use unused airwaves.
Sprint Nextel Corp. is in the process of shutting its 2G push-to-talk iDEN network by next June as it moves users to later generations and aims to free up spectrum.
A spokeswoman from Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, said the company plans to keep its existing networks functioning for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, AT&T agreed to buy NextWave Wireless Inc., in a deal valued at $600 million, as part of its strategy to open up a new band of spectrum for its mobile Internet services. AT&T's main spectrum strategy collapsed last year when a proposed $39 billion acquisition of Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA fell apart amid regulatory concerns.
Verizon is pushing to get clearance for its own $3.9 billion spectrum acquisition from a group of cable companies.
AT&T said the transition away from Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution, or EDGE, will be on market-by-market basis. Service on the networks will be fully discontinued by about Jan. 1, 2017.
The company said it will "manage" the transition process to help minimize customer churn, or customers cancelling their service with the company. A spokesman said the company hasn't yet determined its strategy for the effort.
AT&T doesn't expect the move to hurt its operating results.[/quote]
I don't see anything wrong with this.
Fuck.
I still get an E connection when I'm in school
:v:
[QUOTE=vexx21322;37073403]I don't see anything wrong with this.[/QUOTE]
Me neither. It'll free up spectrum that could be used for other things too!
i dont think anyone will care by then
You mean obsolete internet connections will be disconitnued? Holy shit, AT&T is doing something right
I don't like this. Some people don't need 3G, and paying more for a service that you won't use is never too cool. Older people, who want cell service but not Internet, won't appreciate this (if they care). Not everybody has a smartphone.
[QUOTE=Naaz;37074646]I don't like this. Some people don't need 3G, and paying more for a service that you won't use is never too cool. Older people, who want cell service but not Internet, won't appreciate this (if they care). Not everybody has a smartphone.[/QUOTE]
then just don't use at&t...
My dad wanted to have the worlds oldest functioning at&t 2g phone or some shit, he's gonna be pissed :v:
[QUOTE=Naaz;37074646]I don't like this. Some people don't need 3G, and paying more for a service that you won't use is never too cool. Older people, who want cell service but not Internet, won't appreciate this (if they care). Not everybody has a smartphone.[/QUOTE]
AT&T will just grandfather people's plans.
AT&T will be grand fathering everyone like they did with the unlimited, Most likely just impose a 3g speed cap on people with those plans to 2g speeds.
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;37073567]I still get an E connection when I'm in school
:v:[/QUOTE]
I get a five bar 3g connection when im in school...
Basically because a repeater is on a skyscraper just across the road from the school.
Lucky bastard. I swear schools where I am are designed to inhibit cell reception.
I get E EVERYWHERE in my town. It fucking sucks I have a 4g phone and I can't even load a webpage half of the time it's bullshit I hate AT$T
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;37078277]Lucky bastard. I swear schools where I am are designed to inhibit cell reception.[/QUOTE]
Mine has a repeater on top of one of the towers of the building.
luckly my town has 3g but most places i go still use edge and my phone has yet to see a 4g signal.
i hope by 2017 phones have better batteries, because my phone literally eats up the battery in a day in 3G mode even if i just call people, so i only ever switch it to 3G if i'm about to use the internet
not that i am on at&t, or even live in the US, but still :v:
I would think they'd get 3G up in most of the country before they started taking down 2G myself.
I was pissed off enough when AMPS was getting shut down.
Verizon 4g pretty much anywhere I go and I live in a semi-rural area.
Three network in australia
i dont get 3G in the middle of freaking sydney, like literally in the city
4G? what the fuck is that
[QUOTE=Pace.;37085677]Three network in australia
i dont get 3G in the middle of freaking sydney, like literally in the city
4G? what the fuck is that[/QUOTE]
It's false advertisement. Only LTE-Advanced meets the IMT-Advanced requirements set out by the ITU. You guys have "4G" as well, on Telstra's LTE network.
i get 3G almost everywhere in sao paulo
My phone shows "4G" in my city, but not "4G LTE" (which has a separate logo or something I guess), so I'm only slightly behind.
[QUOTE=lavacano;37086777]My phone shows "4G" in my city, but not "4G LTE" (which has a separate logo or something I guess), so I'm only slightly behind.[/QUOTE]
Well it depends. Providers have progressed from falsely labeling LTE as 4G to labeling HSPA+ as 4G as well. I've never seen a phone say 4G LTE on the indicator, just 3G to describe EvDo or HSPA and 4G to describe HSPA+, WiMax or LTE.
[QUOTE=lavacano;37086777]My phone shows "4G" in my city, but not "4G LTE" (which has a separate logo or something I guess), so I'm only slightly behind.[/QUOTE]
Wouldn't you be ahead? I thought LTE was like draft-n, not really 4G but kinda maybe.
[QUOTE=jediken21;37086884]Wouldn't you be ahead? I thought LTE was like draft-n, not really 4G but kinda maybe.[/QUOTE]
There are no 4G networks anywhere in the world. An actual 4G network needs stationary average speeds of 1Gbit/s and mobile speeds of 100Mbit/s. Just because a phone says it has 4G doesn't mean anything since carriers brand anything that's 21Mbps HSPA+ and above as 4G.
LTE is the fastest consumer option currently in most if not all if I'm not Mistaken. AT&T considers HSPA+ 4G but it's pretty much 3.5g
Of course LTE isn't really 4G either.
[QUOTE=Keegs;37087029]LTE is the fastest consumer option currently in most if not all if I'm not Mistaken. AT&T considers HSPA+ 4G but it's pretty much 3.5g
Of course LTE isn't really 4G either.[/QUOTE]
Yup. LTE networks currently hit 150Mbps theoretical speeds when used on the 2600MHz band. Well that's very impressive and faster than what many people can get for their home internet, using that frequency involves putting repeaters roughly every street light because it's like a widespread wifi network, and I know Canadian carriers are having trouble rolling it out, not sure about US ones. So at 700/AWS which is what North American carriers are using for phones you get 75-100Mbps theoretical speeds, about 1/10th what the ITU defines as true 4G.
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