The end of June is over: Vodafone has already switched some UMTS off


End of June is over
Vodafone has partially switched off UMTS

20 years ago the UMTS or 3G mobile radio standard was the epitome of progress. The technology is now obsolete and is about to be shut down. The few who still use it should contact their provider quickly.

The farewell to the 3G mobile communications standard – also known as UMTS – that was once celebrated as a great advance is approaching. Before Vodafone switched off its remaining 3G stations nationwide at the end of June and offered significantly better alternatives with 4G or 5G, the Düsseldorf company pulled the lever in the cities of Chemnitz, Wiesbaden and Mainz at the beginning of May.

In addition to the technical testing, they wanted to find out how this was received by the customers, and therefore preferred the shutdown there, said a company spokesman. The result: “There are significantly fewer customers than expected who contact us – most of the calls are about older smartphones that do not yet support LTE.” The desire to exchange older SIM cards is also a reason for calling the customer hotline. The meager response to the previously announced local shutdown strengthens the company in its assumption that the consequences for customers will be negligible, the spokesman said.

Only 1.5 percent of the data traffic

3G / UMTS is considered obsolete, the successor technologies 4G / LTE and 5G offer significantly faster transmissions with fewer delays. A good two decades ago, technology was still all the rage, in 2000 the mobile communications industry committed itself to paying the German state a total of around 50 billion euros for UMTS frequencies. But with the introduction of 4G and, most recently, 5G, the demand for 3G continued to decline. In April, only 1.5 percent of Vodafone’s mobile data traffic was on 3G, compared to 2.5 percent at the turn of the year.

Most smartphones are now 4G-compatible, but this does not apply to very old models. Most mobile phone contracts now also include 4G. Anyone who still has an old and rarely used prepaid card as a replacement cell phone could run into problems in the middle of the year after the nationwide shutdown.

Vodafone will exchange old SIM cards for free. The company also recommends activating the so-called VoLTE function in the settings in order to make calls over the 4G network. The mobile frequency that will become available after the shutdown will be reallocated to 4G – overall, the offer for the vast majority of cell phone users will improve, the Vodafone spokesman emphasized. Deutsche Telekom also wants to flip the switch at the end of June, and Telefónica (O2) wants to do so by the end of the year.

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