Network coverage in Canada and the U.S. is changing rapidly, since Canadian providers are no longer maintaining the 2G network as of December 2021 many consumers will be wondering when they can expect a shutdown of the 3G network.
Why are networks phased out?
As mobile carriers seek to upgrade their networks to use the latest technologies, they periodically shut down older services to free up spectrum and infrastructure to support new services, such as 5G. Similar transitions have happened before. For example, some mobile carriers shut down their 2G networks when they upgraded their networks to support 4G services. Mobile carriers have the flexibility to choose the types of technologies and services they deploy, including when they decommission older services in favour of newer services to meet consumer demands.
|
Network |
Canada |
United States |
|---|---|---|
|
2G |
2G complete Shutdown: December 31, 2021. Network no longer maintained as of this date until fully deprecated. |
AT&T stopped servicing its 2G network back in 2017. |
|
3G |
March 31, 2021 (Continued 3G support until 2025) |
AT&T has stated they will sunset their 3G network in February of 2022. |
|
4G, 4G LTE, LTE-Advanced |
Launched in 2011, likely will not sunset for another decade and no date is set at this time. |
Launched in 2010, likely will not sunset for another decade and no date is set at this time. |
|
5G |
In June 2020, they began rolling out the network in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto and added additional cities thereafter. A small collection of 5G-capable devices are available in Canada. |
AT&T began an early launch of mobile 5G services in select cities on December 21, 2018. All Networks will continue to implement the network, 5G devices will fallback to 4G LTE |
|
LTE-M, CAT-M1, LPWAN |
Rogers did a national rollout of LTE-M will start with an initial launch in Ontario by the end of 2018, followed by additional provinces throughout 2019. Telus and Bell followed suit in 2019. |
Various networks began launching between 2016-2018. |