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2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

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Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#41

Post by msh »

Longhanks wrote: post #19
thorum wrote: post #11

> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. Seems reasonable. Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Where I'm from, the same discussion appears every two years, when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio. Luckily, they always get shut down by the people. Maybe don't try to shut down public services that millions of people actually rely on.

Google kills products every year. It also should not be a surprise to anyone that tech have an expiration date.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#42

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tifik wrote: post #38
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can go to their office and they provide the printed form and a pen Getting to a government office was historically a barrier. It still is in much of the world. > there is a law mandating free access to government services To be clear, I think this is a good thing. I just don't think it's reasonable to assume it to be true.

> Getting to a government office was historically a barrier. That is a very good point, and something I did not include in my logic. Thanks for pointing that out.

It's actually wild to see, across history, how cost of travel was used as a gating mechanism. The example that comes to mind is the Roman Tribal Assembly [1]. While on paper it was egalitarian, in practice only the elites could afford to keep criss-crossing Italy to elect low-ranking Senators.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_assembly

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#43

Post by physicsguy »

richjdsmith wrote: post #9

Has 4G/5G improved? When I lived in the UK (Midlands until 2019) it was entirely unreliable. I'd wager 75% of my connection was on 3G as soon as I was more than 3Km from a town's high street. I can say with confidence that the shift from 4G/LTE to 5G where I live now in British Columbia (Canada) mountains is not fun. It's significantly less reliable. I understand that its 10x faster, but I'd much prefer reliable over…

It's considerably better, I live in the East Midlands in a rural village and get 4G and 5G depending on where I am in the house.

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#44

Post by unleaded »

kube-system wrote: post #15
pajko wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Critical systems are using or will fallback to 2G, which will stay with us forever. The bandwidth is not required there anyway.

Is the UK not going to sunset 2G? Here in the states the last 2G towers are disappearing here in a couple of months, and much of the network has been gone for years.

2g will be shutting down in 2033, 3g will be shutting down around 2025. a lot of people have 2g phones

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#45

Post by fsckboy »

Longhanks wrote: post #19
thorum wrote: post #11

> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. Seems reasonable. Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Where I'm from, the same discussion appears every two years, when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio. Luckily, they always get shut down by the people. Maybe don't try to shut down public services that millions of people actually rely on.

>when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio

in the US, what killed FM radio is the death of independent stations with local DJs, replaced by nationwide corporate homogeneity

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#46

Post by fsckboy »

1oooqooq wrote: post #2

a yes, the great tech-poor divide nobody cares when talking about digital central bank currencies or digital government etc.

>the great tech-poor divide nobody cares

in the US, mentally ill drug addicted homeless people living on the street generally have smartphones

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#47

Post by [deleted] »

pajko wrote: post #12

3G has been recently switched off in the most (or all by now?) part of Hungary. I have thought that the bands get reused for 4G, but no change so far. Probably the remaining 2G occupies the same bands or whatever. Or they have gone with 5G, while all the providers banish prepaid users from using 5G, so thanks for nothing. Anyway, the biggest downside is that where the 4G coverage sucks, I'm seeing the nightmarish EDG…

[deleted]

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#48

Post by stephen_g »

sroussey wrote: post #22
thorum wrote: post #11

> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. Seems reasonable. Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Not long before the 3G voice gets disabled too so the spectrum can get reused.

Yeah, I'd be surprised if that didn't happen eventually - 2G is already completely phased out here in Australia and all the networks are shutting down their 3G networks this year, so VoLTE/VoNR are the only options now. Surely that will happen eventually in the UK also?

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#49

Post by wcoenen »

Longhanks wrote: post #19
thorum wrote: post #11

> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity. Seems reasonable. Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous. Where I'm from, the same discussion appears every two years, when the government tries once more to shutdown FM radio. Luckily, they always get shut down by the people. Maybe don't try to shut down public services that millions of people actually rely on.

> Imagine if Apple or Google were retroactively removing a feature. The shitstorm would be outrageous.

Is this sarcasm? Just in case it is not:

https://killedby.tech/google/

Re: 2.7M Brits still use a 3G only handset

#50

Post by helsinkiandrew »

> Furthermore, the study also reveals 21% of those with a 3G handset aren’t willing to upgrade, and will simply continue to use their phone without internet connectivity.

I would guess that a large subset of those handsets are for 'emergency' use. Phones kept in car glove boxes and hand bags and rarely or infrequently used and never for internet.

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