France is about to become the second country in Europe and the first in the EU to shut down the once-exciting but now-obsolete 2G mobile phone networks.
The first turnoffs took place Wednesday, and will continue throughout the year, town by town. For anyone still using a 2G phone, a new phone will be needed, but although there are 1.5 million French households that still have a 2G phone, industry officials say that “We believe that many of these devices are old phones that people keep in their drawers.” Operators are able to identify phones that are in use and individually notify users.
2G, which launched in the 1990s, was the first non-analog mobile system, and operated on a variety of protocols including GSM, TDMA and CDMA. It gave way to 3G and later versions which support much-higher speeds and enable internet browsing and streaming. Frequencies freed up by closing the network can be reallocated to newer technologies.
Switzerland was first in Europe to end 2G, and it is also defunct in the U.S. UK operators expect to end use by 2033, but as more countries drop it, and fewer subscribers use it, that schedule might speed up.
