AT&T drop 2G

[gar616]

I just came back from the AT&T wireless store in Islandia, Long Island and the sales rep told me they will stop operating all 2G services at the end of this month. All our 2G phones will need to be upgraded. Did I miss some announcement in the news? The rep said they will email everyone to upgrade their phones. I don't mind a new phone that's why I was in there to begin with. but what will happen in areas that never had 3G? and when were they going to tell the public?

[Zach7]

This sounds like a ploy to get you to upgrade your phone. I do not see how they can shut off all the edge/2g service and not lose customers. Especially with not giving them more notice.

[gar616]

I called the customer service 611 and their service person was vague at best but did confirm they are reallocating resources from 2g to 3g. Effectively cutting service. He claimed that emails were sent to those affected and that it stated in this email that certain areas would be affected. But I do not think management is telling him the truth only enough not to end up on the evening news.

[Zach7]

They are probably just updating all their 2g towers to 3/4g. I know one area I travel thru just got updated in the last few months. Just make sure they give you a great deal on the new phone!

[gar616]

Upgrade to 3g is good but what happens when the person with a 2g phone actually has to use it for an emergency and it won't work? I am only concerned that they are doing this on the sly to avoid having to explain publicity, forced upgrades to phones that require a more expensive plan. Temporary outages are a fact of the technology but when a company does it and does not warn the public, that is simply wrong.

[Zach7]

I am sure they are required to keep a patch in place for the phones to still work. It is just what they are using to get everyone to grade.

[gar616]

I hope you are right.

[Blacklac]

While this would be awesome, I highly doubt it. Wouldn't this effectively make all non ATT global phones essentially work everywhere... Except ATT?! Not to mention how many people don't have 3G phones yet. Seems like a jump like this is still a couple years away, but that's just my uneducated guess.

I have so many EDGE only locations in Michigan, how t the world could they upgrade them all to 3G/HSPA+ within that time frame?

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[1edyson]

I know on the west coast, AT&T offered a free 2G-3G exchange on mobile devices. Certain phones were free, and you would be able to get a discount on other phones with no contract upgrade. They sent out thousands of letters to customer in a few different waves to get them to replace the phones. The 2G network will still be in place, however it's coverage will be greatly reduced.

[smurfgod]

What if you have an unlocked phone from tmobile?? Its only capable of getting att 2g service. Will they no longer work on att now?

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[CrackBerryBryan]

I can't believe they will not have any fall back for 3G data. Something about this doesn't sound right to me... Perhaps it's just a broader rollout of 3G and not a discontinuation of the 2G service.

[Blacklac]

Just doesn't sound right to me either.

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[Fubaz]

Originally Posted by CrackBerryBryan

I can't believe they will not have any fall back for 3G data. Something about this doesn't sound right to me... Perhaps it's just a broader rollout of 3G and not a discontinuation of the 2G service.

Bell doesnt have a 2G backbone, and has flawless service.

[joeldf]

Originally Posted by Fubaz

Bell doesnt have a 2G backbone, and has flawless service.

That's because they only have 3G throughout their entire coverage area. That's not the case with AT&T. Here, AT&T 3G service covers only about 30-35%, at best, of their 2G service. Not population, but actual ground coverage. There area major rural areas with only 2G where I am in South Louisiana (and most of Louisiana gets at least some coverage). Once you get out of any major metro area, the only place you get 3G is along the Interstates. Drive a few miles off the Interstate and 3G is gone. Not just weak, but totally gone. Yet there is plenty of 2G Edge service that covers much more area.

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[matte119]

I gonna drop some network knowledge real quick (Warning: technical terms coming).

When AT&T launched 3G it used to just run on 1900 MHz frequency making it far less expansive. The higher the frequency, the smaller the area it can span around a tower or penetrate barriers like walls. At the time 2G ran on 850 MHz. Logically, 850 MHz is far more expansive and penetrating.

Then came along the iPhone 3G (a.k.a. the beginning of the 3G data explosion). So to compensate AT&T performed a "3G Overlay" where they kept 3G on 1900 MHz and "overlayed" 3G on 850 MHz with 2G. The two networks were essentially sharing the bandwidth on the 850 spectrum. As 3G phone users increased AT&T kept allocating more and more of the 850 spectrum to 3G.

Now it's gotten to the point where it's financially irresponsible to keep 2G on the 850 spectrum. So they are moving it to the 1900 MHz spectrum so that they can use the entire 850 MHz spectrum for 3G only. Thus giving 3G wider coverage.

Here's a great analogy. Let's say you're throwing a party. You start by filling the big shelf in your fridge with soda, and get some beer to put on the smaller top shelf because you're not expecting it to be a big party. But then you notice people start drinking more of the beer than soda. So you get more beer and put it on the bigger shelf and take out some of the soda. Pretty soon almost everyone's drinking beer and it's a big waste of money to have that much soda. So your next party you use the big shelf for beer and small shelf for soda. Eventually no wants you three week old soda and everyone just wants beer. But there's always that one nut job that insists on having soda so you fill your shelves with beer and keep a few sodas in the door for nutsy. Eventually even nutsy gives in and has a few. Now everyone's happy. Then guess what? No need for soda anymore.