The 3G network of Verizon will not be shut down and will continue indefinitely, despite the company's previous plans to discontinue it over the past few years.
Verizon's 3G will continue
According to the company's statement given to Light Reading, Kevin King, the spokesman of Verizon, said that they are keeping the older wireless network running with no exact timeline for when the company will shut down the service.
King stated that there is no exact shutoff date and that Verizon is still working with customers to get them onto one of its more recent networks.
King adds that there are some contract for the Verizon's connected devices that still need to be honored while the company is also making sure that their customers who still have 3G phones are not left behind.
King stated that as soon as they were able to move people off they will be able to decommission the 3G network. This decision marks a departure from the previous statements of the company, including one in 2016 in which the company announced plans to shut off the 3G service at the end of 2019.
Verizon reiterated the planned 2019 3G network shutdown in 2018 when the company announced that it would no longer be activating phones that could only connect to 3G networks.
In July 2019, the company told Light Reading that it would stop the discontinuation of the 3G network until the end of 2020. By keeping its 3G network active, Verizon will continue to have three generations of networks operational: the 3G, 4G LTE and its new 5G service.
It is still not clear how many phones or other 3G-connected devices like ATMs are still using the 3G network, but the number of the devices seems to be massive enough for the company to postpone the shutdown indefinitely.
Verizon is not the only carrier that is keeping 3G around for a bit longer. AT&T had announced that its 3G network will remain online until February 2021, while T-Mobile told Light Reading that it would shut down its 3G network in the coming years but did not give an exact timeline.
What is the difference between 3G, 4G and 5G?
Smartphones that has 3G network has a download speed of up to 2Mbps. Meanwhile, 4G has a download speed of around 3 to 5Mbps and 5G has a download speed of around 20 to 480 Mbps, which is a massive leap from 3G. This means that 5Gs can support more users at the same time, according to The Verizon.
With a 3G tower, around 60 to 100 people can share the signal and get fast service. With a 4G tower, it can serve around 300 to 400 people.
A 4G network is more efficient than a 3G network, and 5G network is more efficient than a 4G network. Each generation delivers more data per hertz than the previous one.
3G networks has a frequency of up to 2.1Gigahertz, 4G networks has up to 2.5Gigahertz and 5G has up to 95 Gigahertz. That is why there is a lot of hype around 5G.
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Written by Sieeka Khan
