SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — Remember when 3G service was all the rage for your mobile phone? Starting 2/22/22, 3G will begin to become extinct, as carriers begin to phase out the service.
It was tough, but 3G brought websurfing to your phone before, beyond the standard phone calls and text messages.
AT&T is leading the change.
"The spectrum is a limited resource. The radio airwaves are a limited resource," Roger Cheng said with CNET. "They need to rearrange their existing services to extend them to 4G, 5G."
It's not just about your phone. Companies such as Ankle Monitor, school buses, alarm systems and LifeLine use 3G service to provide continuous low-level monitoring services. The plan was to upgrade to 4G for all those services and then hit the pandemic.
"With all our companies on their way to work on this in March 2020, we basically shut down," said John Brady, COO of Connect America and Lifeline. "We were unable to go to businesses and homes and move to the old 3G system and install the new 4G. We lost 15 to 18 months because of the pandemic."
It is not only the domestic system – but also public transport.
Next systems that allow wait times for the next bus at Muni Bus Shelters around San Francisco are also affected by the switch.
“We had originally planned to have a perfect synergy with the replacement of all our wayfinding equipment in our bus shelters, but because it is 2021 and 2022 – the material was not available on time so we have been working on our existing services to ensure are rearranging. That we can continue to make real-time predictions on the locations where we have the most riders," said Jeffrey Tumlin of SFMTA at a recent board meeting.
Muni is setting the 4G kit to the extent that supply chain issues allow and adding QR codes to shelters so riders can receive accurate data about bus arrivals.
"I think what will happen is that people will be amazed at how many things they have worked out in their environment that all of a sudden isn't going to work. So it's a lot more than just life safety, but of course we can talk about those lives. I am concerned who will be at risk,” Brady said.
"Estimates range, they're not clear numbers on this, but it's estimated that between 3 million and 10 million people have 3G phones and their service will stop working on Tuesday," Cheng said.
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"Once that service is out -- it's going to be more difficult to contact customer service," Cheng says. "If your phone is dead, there's no way to connect it. You have to physically go to a shop and get this mess sorted out."
AT&T is the first, but other mobile carriers have similar plans to phase out 3G service this year, with Sprint in late March, and Verizon and T-Mobile in July.