Status: 06/30/2021 4:13 p.m.
During the night, the third generation (3G) cellular standard will be switched off. The UMTS frequencies are needed for the 5G expansion. This has consequences, at least for some old smartphones.
From Sebastian Tittelbach,
WDR
During the night of July 1, the three major German mobile phone providers will gradually switch off their UMTS networks. After 20 years of use, the third generation (3G) cellular standard is considered obsolete. Most customers should not even notice that the UMTS network is disappearing.
Telephoning and sending SMS will still be possible with older cell phones. However, it becomes problematic if you want to surf the Internet or use apps with an old smartphone such as the iPhone 4. Without UMTS, that only works at a snail’s pace. If you are using a very old SIM card, you may need a new one.
Recently only a small volume of data via UMTS
According to a study by the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Services (VATM) in autumn 2020, the proportion of personal SIM cards that only support the older 2G / 3G mobile networks was 31.2 percent. That corresponds to 34.2 million SIM cards. However, the mobile data volume that ran over the UMTS networks recently only made up a very small proportion for the large providers.
None of the mobile phone providers expect major disruptions; Telekom and Vodafone have already tested the processes in some regions in advance. The shutdown takes place gradually. Telefonica does not want to take the last antennas out of service until the end of the year.
UMTS frequency auction once brought billions
The federal government auctioned off the first frequency packages for the German UMTS networks in 2000 for amounts in the billions. In 2004, Telekom was the first provider to start its UMTS network. With the shutdown, frequencies will now be freed up that mobile operators want to use to further expand their LTE and 5G networks.
Mobile phone providers switch off the UMTS network
June 30, 2021 11:59 am