In the US, North America, you mean. 2G is still alive and kicking, especially in Africa and South Asia:

https://streetwave.co/mobile-networks/2g-switch-off-by-count...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#Phase-out

Australia is shutting down 3G this year.

Didn't it shut down at the start of the month?

Yes, I agree, but I assume is not One Big Switch to disable all of 3G at once. Google tells me that is (at least) started on 28 Oct 2024.

Ref: https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-communications-arts/...

And Europe. Finalizing the shutdowns of 2G and 3G networks in Sweden during 2025.

Finland will still keep 2G for a long time.

Is there a particular reason? And how do you know so much about 2G in Finland, specifically!?

Portugal will keep it too.

Dumb phones are still being sold that are 2G only.

Not just that, but “landlines” are still being offered that are really a 2G phone restricted to work only in the vicinity of a home that's not (yet?) covered by actual landlines.

It's also used by emergency services.

It's considered a technology of last resort, and the service provider that wins the concession to provide it, with 100% coverage of a given area, probably finds it useful that it can meet the conditions with such tech.

3G has already shut down.

Denmark does the same. 3G has been shutdown, or mostly at least. 2G is kept running, with no plans to shut it down in the future.

Things that uses 2G:

  - Electricity meters
  - Alarm systems
  - Cooling and heating systems
  - Rat traps (?)
  - And an absolute crap-ton of early "IoT" devices.

And it's considered a backup network, with better coverage and range than 4G/5G. It also makes sense as the country is actively starting to remove the old landlines. The first cables are actively been removed from the ground.

Yeah, there was a lot of debates when they started relying on cell networks for alarms systems (mostly for the elderly) as a way to not have to maintain the copper.

A guess...

1G (NMT) and 2G networks have been used in forestry. Very often the machines are far from a mast and need the extra range to communicate.

And in general Finland is a sparsely populated country.

Yup and in the UK a lot of our card payment boxes for car parks will stop working when 3G is shut down, and will be replaced with an app. People without phones need not apply!

One can see how quickly people could drop through the bottom of society once you can't afford to pay your phone or car bills. None of that technology comes cheap, not at least if you hit hard times for a while, and you will become a second class citizen.

Luckily, technology has become cheaper and cheaper over time, and continues to do so.

Don't worry, software developers will keep upping the minimum requirements to compensate.

Really? Oh man ... I was in the UK this summer and had to install a different app to pay for parking (or car charging) in every city I went to, and some of them wouldn't accept a non-UK licence plate :( High demand for developers keeps my salary high, but it's all such a waste.

It is nice with the app though. Topping up, alerts, GPS for where your car is. It's annoying it's multiple apps, but the apps do add value.

> what's wrong with corporate America

I don't know that it's necessarily that, simply that SMS became very heavily used _and still is_ for basic functionality, essential services, billing, notifications etc. in Europe, Africa, Asia - unlike the US. Compare to e.g. the US requirement for universal lifeline (landline) phone service.

That's not a good example of 'planned obsolescence'. 2G wasn't 'planned' to be obsolete, it was superseded by better technologies. Also because 2G is a *service* and not a product, it was a business decision to sunset the *service* since there is a maintenance cost to 2G *service*, as well as an opportunity cost in not being able to reserve 2G radio frequencies for 4G and 5G networks.

Yes, and this perfectly illustrates my point that putting in the extra effort to make your product ultra study is not a good engineering nor business decision, if that means the product outlasts the surrounding eco-system it needs to function.

2G is not just a service or a business but it is infrastructure.

You're being overly pedantic. But OK, 2G is a bunch of infrastructure that is then rented out creating a cell service. Everything else holds true in that there is a maintenance cost and an opportunity cost.

The point is that it has been around so long that so many things depend on it. That makes sunsetting it a public policy decision and not just a business decision.