Government to ban sale of 2G devices by February 2023

Jan

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South Africa is going to ban the sale of 2G devices

South Africa will ban the importation and distribution of 2G devices by end-February 2023, communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has announced.

Speaking at the 2022 World Telecommunication Development Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, Ntshavheni said the ban would help South Africa shut down its 2G and 3G networks by 2025.
 
Really feeling for anyone who stock 2g & 3g devices. Especially gps trackers or what ever.
 
ld13 said:
.. why?

None of my IOT devices communicate over any of the cellular G's.
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More things like car/bus trackers, would guess lots of farming setups as well.

Like gtx said, payment terminals.
 
ld13 said:
.. why?

None of my IOT devices communicate over any of the cellular G's.
Click to expand...
Then you have probably rolled them out on NB-IoT or LTE-M, good for you. There are many who are not so fortunate as you, who have legacy devices still on GPRS, EDGE etc.
 
Has the Indian/Pakistani/Somali Entrepreneur network been consulted on this?
 
Damn, time to upgrade I guess...Anybody wants to buy my 6310i?
I'll be using it until February next year however.
 
Smells like there's money involved for a lot of people if they do this. Me included.

/Whistles and sips JW from his penthouse pool
 
LCBXX said:
Why ban?

Put down a milestone for switching off 2G by 2023 and that's it.
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Because there are still a lot of systems using them, the ban means that everyone will need to upgrade once it dies, indirectly forcing a move away from 2G, rather than an immediate forced shift. Think stuff like payment terminals, car trackers, why would you get rid of it unless it's broken? Banning 2G means immediately have to pay to swap, banning the device means the replacement will be an upgraded device but current device still works fine.
 
Johnatan56 said:
Because there are still a lot of systems using them, the ban means that everyone will need to upgrade once it dies, indirectly forcing a move away from 2G, rather than an immediate forced shift. Think stuff like payment terminals, car trackers, why would you get rid of it unless it's broken? Banning 2G means immediately have to pay to swap, banning the device means the replacement will be an upgraded device but current device still works fine.
Click to expand...
This is why you get paid the big bucks! Good explanation :thumbsup:
 
Johnatan56 said:
Because there are still a lot of systems using them, the ban means that everyone will need to upgrade once it dies, indirectly forcing a move away from 2G, rather than an immediate forced shift. Think stuff like payment terminals, car trackers, why would you get rid of it unless it's broken? Banning 2G means immediately have to pay to swap, banning the device means the replacement will be an upgraded device but current device still works fine.
Click to expand...
This is overreach by the ANC Government. Put down the 2G deadline and allow the the free-market to solve for it.
 
LCBXX said:
This is overreach by the ANC Government. Put down the 2G deadline and allow the the free-market to solve for it.
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This is an indirect 2G deadline and imho a better way to solve it as you can then put a hard deadline once there are fewer devices still left, and this can only be done by government, not the networks.
 
ld13 said:
.. why?

None of my IOT devices communicate over any of the cellular G's.
Click to expand...
The IoT connectivity market is completely dominated by 2G and there's a reason - cost, widespread coverage, global roaming etc. I expect push-back on this Feb 2023 deadline.

LTE-based IoT is in very early stages in SA still and the ecosystem is still developing.

Advanced regulators tend to float these policy changes via evidence-based discussion papers and allow market submissions before they make announcements like this
 
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