this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2025
266 points (97.5% liked)

Technology

65023 readers
4142 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Global leap to 4G and 5G would cut off phone access for millions of vulnerable people.

  • Telecom companies aim to profit from the 2G-to-5G transition as governments worldwide face pressure to free up mobile spectrum.
  • Vietnam is the latest country to shut down 2G by offering free 4G phones to the poor.
  • India and South Africa have expressed concern that the strategy would cut off phone access for millions of vulnerable people.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] madis@lemm.ee 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Why couldn't you turn off 3G on that old phone via that same hidden menu? Or how come the phone didn't even recognize that it can fall back to 2G...

[–] Zanz@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago

Due to marketing b*******, most things labeled as 3G are actually 2G.So networks don't support both two and three g. Then things that are actually 3G like hspda and L.T.E are marketed as four g , so it's just very confusing between all of it. They want to shut down the 2G.Networks that are edge and gsm.And they want to shut down the one g network that's cdma. Depending on your service that could be marketed as 123 or even four g.

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

~~2G is also gone.~~ Edit: it's not gone just yet. Not sure why the phone didn't try to fall back to 2G.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/3g-switch-off/

The old phone was a couple years into 4G existing but before we started to send voice over it.

I assume it just wasn't in the OS-level code. It only went up to Android 11. We could have tried LineageOS but that would have required a bunch of work including wiping the phone.

Either way, we checked and the option just wasn't there.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

alt roms often add support for volte if the phone supports 4G, because it's just a software thing

[–] ladfrombrad@lemdro.id 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Were they / are they on the 3 network?

If so, that's why because 3 has never had a 2G network at all ;)

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

That must be it!

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

alt roms often add support for volte if the phone supports 4G, because it's just a software thing