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.
  • @Armand1
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 days ago

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

    • @[email protected]
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      12 days ago

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

    • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧
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      32 days ago

      Were they / are they on the 3 network?

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

      • @Armand1
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        22 days ago

        That must be it!