Do you still remember the 2G era of texting and chatting about QQ more than ten years ago?
At that time, the traffic of 30M per month was enough, and the network speed was only a few tens of kbps, and it was very enjoyable.
Including the current 4G and 5G network penetration rate, most of the elderly machines used by grandparents at home are actually 2G and 3G.
What I didn't expect is that now 2G and 3G networks are really going to become the tears of the times...
Just a few days ago, a news that "the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made it clear that 2G3G must be withdrawn from the network" scared me.
Here's the thing.
In September, someone left a message saying that he hoped to be able to restart the 2G and 3G signals, because many old machines could not be used normally.
After two months, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave a reply, which was summed up in one sentence: "2G and 3G withdrawal are inevitable choices".
YesThe official toneFinish.
I thought that 2G 3G might be eliminated, but I didn't expect this moment to come so quickly.
Moreover, there are really a lot of cases like netizens leaving messages.
On a certain platform, since the beginning of this year, people in some areas have reported that 2G and 3G networks cannot be used.
After checking some information, I found that the plan to phase out 2G and 3G had started many years ago.
As early as 2018, China Unicom announced that it was going to shut down the 2G network, and we also wrote a special article about it at that time.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued documents one after another, including the withdrawal of 2G and 3G networks as the key work of network infrastructure construction during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.
That isBy 2025 at the latest, 2G and 3G will have to be retired.
The three domestic operators, Unicom is the first shot of 2G network withdrawal, China Mobile 19 years ago cleared more than 6,000 3G base stations in Fuzhou, Telecom originally planned to complete 2G, 3G all out of the network by the end of 2024, there are reports that it is now ahead of schedule.
In addition, 2G and 3G will be withdrawnInternationallyThere is also a general consensus.
According to the GSA (Global Mobile Business Association), as of the end of June 2023, 149 operators worldwide have completed, planned, or are in the process of shutting down 2G and 3G networks.
Three mainstream operators in the United States, such as AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, have all turned off 3G, except for T-Mobile, which will wait until April next year, and the other two have also turned off 2G networks.
So2G and 3G withdrawal from the network is basically a general trend, and after fermenting for so long, this year is more like an ultimatum.
Combined with the news that China is going to promote 6G in the past few days, looking at the two things together, I always feel a sense of separation.
However, eliminating 2G and 3G is actually a matter of no choice.
Let's take a look at the group data, as of the end of 2018, the proportion of 2G users of the three major operators is 302%, China Mobile 229% and China Telecom 201% 。
By 21, China Mobile's 2G and 3G users accounted for 17%, and China Unicom and China Telecom no longer released this part of the data.
What is certain is that the three major operators are slowly "weeding" 2G and 3G users.
On the one hand,The cost of maintaining the base station is there.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of 2021, the total number of base stations in the country reached 9.96 million, and the number of 2G and 3G base stations was still 26350,000, accounting for more than 26%.
However, these base stations built in the early years are basically aging, and they have to spend a lot of money every year on operation and maintenance costs such as electricity, maintenance costs, and base station leasing fees.
Moreover, compared with 4G and 5G, there are not many people who use 2G and 3G, and if the business is not profitable, they have to throw a lot of money into it every year, which is clearly a loss-making transaction.
On the other hand, if you continue to use 2G and 3G networks,It is also a waste of band resources.
As we all know, spectrum resources are very precious, especially in low-frequency frequency bands, which can transmit signals farther, and the signals are better in many remote places.
For example, China Mobile's 2G GSM system has been occupying the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands, while 5G is mainly at high frequencies, such as 26ghz and 49ghz 。
In this way, let's say that 2G can build a station at a distance of 10 kilometers, but the radius covered by a 5G base station is not that far.
High-quality frequency bands have been occupied by 2G and 3G, which is a waste of resources, and the ugly point may be that "occupying the pit does not" It is better to vacate the place, so that many remote areas can also cover 5G signals.
So China Mobile has previously freed up 2GHz, the 3G frequency band that was originally used to deploy TD-SCDMA, to 4G.
Like, thoughThe 2G network is special.
Let's put it this way, probably before 2018, the voice channel deployed in the 2G era was still needed to receive calls, and even if you can use 4G to surf the Internet, you still have to switch back to 2G when you play.
So if you turn off 2G, you can't even play.
And Unicom dared to do 2G back then, or because of the WCDMA technology in the 3G era, users switched to 3G when they hit **.
But after the advent of 4G's Volte technology, there is no need to switch to the 2G network.
This technology is equivalent to a new voice channel on the 4G network, which can meet the needs of Internet access and playing at the same time.
Including 5G, there is a VONR, and now, 2G is even more redundant.
However, just like the comments of netizens at the beginning of the article, for us young people, 2G and 3G withdrawal from the network actually have no big impact, and more people are affected by those who still use 2G and 3G mobile phones.
According to the logic of withdrawing from the network, these mobile phones may be one in the futureBricks
However, the cost Xi of learning a new mobile phone is too high for the elderly, and many elderly people may not be used to it Xi.
So what about these elderly people who use 2G and 3G mobile phones?
For this reason, Shichao contacted the customer service staff of China Mobile, but strangely, the customer service said that they have not yet received a notice of 2G and 3G withdrawal from the network, and there will be corresponding policies if such a situation occurs in the future.
However, I did see relevant complaints on some social platforms, and some netizens gave some solutions.
For example, some elderly machines can find and turn on the Volte HD voice call function in the settings, and then they can surf the Internet normally.
If you don't have this option on your phone, then port your number.
However, no matter which operator, it is a matter of time before the network is withdrawn, and it is not a long-term solution to which one to transfer.
So the final destination is, stillChange your phone
According to a poster, after the elderly machine at home could not be used normally, the telecom business hall subsidized part of the money to replace the mobile phone.
Combined with the reply of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it is certain that the three major operators will not turn off all the domestic 2G and 3G networks at once, and it is estimated that they have not yet discussed a more suitable response plan.
Therefore, if the elderly in the family really can't hit the ** situation,It is recommended to contact the business office directly to solve the problem
Finally, as a netizen said, "Turning off 2G and 3G is the trend of the times, and no one will focus on a technology that is gradually abandoned by the times." ”
From the perspective of resource utilization and cost accounting, 2G and 3G are no longer applicable.
However, it is necessary to pay attention to the situation of some vulnerable groups under the iteration of technology.
Many years ago, this group of elderly people who used feature phones had another label, "Internet relics".
Face payment, fingerprint unlocking, and scanning *** are things that seem simple to us, but they have fallen into a digital survival dilemma.
However, this is not a reason for them to be abandoned by the times.
How to bridge this huge "digital divide" is a permanent issue in technological evolution.