Mobile operators at odds over 2G and 3G shutdown

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Battle brewing over 2G and 3G shutdown in South Africa

At least two of South Africa's major mobile networks are at odds over the country's draft next-generation radio frequency spectrum policy.

First published for public comment on Thursday, 8 September 2022, the policy outlines the government's plan on how spectrum — the valuable and limited transmission medium used for mobile network communications — will be used by telecoms operators in the future.
 
Think I'm with MTN on this one, there are lots of essential devices running on 2G, shutting down 3G as a priority makes sense as these devices typically fail back to 2G.

Telkom is probably looking at their bottom line and not the countries best interests, they probably failed to invest enough in 4/5G and are overly dependant on 3G revenues, maybe it's best they do merge with Rain.

Thay said government probably should ban licensing of 2/3G devices immediately and stop the sales of 3G sooner
 
Why waste breath asking Cell C? Just skip them and we'll be fine.
 
2G is great for IoT. It is not bandwidth intensive and has low power requirements. Its can be run on a coin cell battery.

LTE is a hog. Power and bit rates are inappropriate for IoT. Killing 2G shuts down critical communications. Shutting that down so that cadres can fap is another dumbass government idea.
 
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3G can go first. 2G has distinct advantages in over-subscribed areas, especially during summer season, it allows for phone calls when 3G & 4G both collapse in a heap! Added to this is the myriad of things like security gates!

Also, those on low incomes can afford a basic feature phone at R119 or so, you'll never get a 4G device that low in price range!
 
RVQ said:
Think I'm with MTN on this one, there are lots of essential devices running on 2G, shutting down 3G as a priority makes sense as these devices typically fail back to 2G.

Telkom is probably looking at their bottom line and not the countries best interests, they probably failed to invest enough in 4/5G and are overly dependant on 3G revenues, maybe it's best they do merge with Rain.

Thay said government probably should ban licensing of 2/3G devices immediately and stop the sales of 3G sooner
Click to expand...
It's typically because 3G makes way for 2G that devices fall back to 2G and the argument can be made in reverse to have better 3G reception. This is purely corporate speak because where businesses don't have to make changes they won't. MTN and Vodacom should have set deadlines ages ago and not allowed any new 2G devices by this point. On the other hand many 3G only consumer devices are still being sold and without 3G they would have poor or no connectivity. These M2M devices typically don't use consumer bands in any case so there's no reason 2G can't be shut down for the most part.
 
RVQ said:
Think I'm with MTN on this one, there are lots of essential devices running on 2G, shutting down 3G as a priority makes sense as these devices typically fail back to 2G.

Telkom is probably looking at their bottom line and not the countries best interests, they probably failed to invest enough in 4/5G and are overly dependant on 3G revenues, maybe it's best they do merge with Rain.

Thay said government probably should ban licensing of 2/3G devices immediately and stop the sales of 3G sooner
Click to expand...

Data at all costs is the new god, we will store so much data there will never be enough power stations to keep all those centres running, its already consuming gigantic amounts of power over the globe, to look at what-?
Look at the internet and its data, most of it is repeated garbage and repeated again and again. The end of this will be interesting.
 
r00igev@@r said:
2G is great for IoT. It is not bandwidth intensive and has low power requirements. Its can be run on a coin cell battery.

LTE is a hog. Power and bit rates are inappropriate for IoT. Killing 2G shuts down critical communications. Shutting that down that so that cadres can fap is another dumbass government idea.
Click to expand...
IoT devices should be using LTE-M/NB-IoT networks.
These networks uses LTE technology, but geared towards IoT (low power, etc).

Most European networks have shut down 3G first, and lastly 2G where possible.
2G is great for long distance (eg. Karoo) communications.
 
Nod said:
IoT devices should be using LTE-M/NB-IoT networks.
These networks uses LTE technology, but geared towards IoT (low power, etc).

Most European networks have shut down 3G first, and lastly 2G where possible.
2G is great for long distance (eg. Karoo) communications.
Click to expand...
If guard band use is being put forward you might as well bring back iBurst. Best there was and still is as a standard.
 
A question for the more knowledgeable guys.

Why do I get more throughput on 2G than on 3G?
When LTE goes down, and it drops to 3G it's almost as if it's worse than just plain 2G "in die vlaktes"
 
Cactus said:
A question for the more knowledgeable guys.

Why do I get more throughput on 2G than on 3G?
When LTE goes down, and it drops to 3G it's almost as if it's worse than just plain 2G "in die vlaktes"
Click to expand...
Cell congestion on the tower if there are a lot of people on the same tower.
Reduced throughput because of the tower running on batteries (it limits its own power usage, and thus transmit power).
Most phones will switch to 3G automatically, as it should be the best connection, but if they all this during load shedding, then those channels will be saturated quickly.
2G not used as much, and light in terms of power usage, could then perform better.
 
Seems Telkom and Cell c are holding back as they are most reliant on 3G and can’t invest or upgrade their networks fast enough to 4G
 
JimM said:
3G can go first. 2G has distinct advantages in over-subscribed areas, especially during summer season, it allows for phone calls when 3G & 4G both collapse in a heap! Added to this is the myriad of things like security gates!

Also, those on low incomes can afford a basic feature phone at R119 or so, you'll never get a 4G device that low in price range!
Click to expand...
Bought my geriatric dad a R199 feature phone (Mobicell C1) from Pep this month.

It is 4G and with a color screen (1.77 inch), NOT 2G
 
Nod said:
IoT devices should be using LTE-M/NB-IoT networks.
These networks uses LTE technology, but geared towards IoT (low power, etc).

Most European networks have shut down 3G first, and lastly 2G where possible.
2G is great for long distance (eg. Karoo) communications.
Click to expand...
free LoRaWAN / Helium / Mysterium network to replace 2G in IoT and security devices

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