FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE
2G SUNSET
A WHITE PAPER BY INGENU
Five Things You Should Know About the 2G Sunset
FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
THE 2G SUNSET
The marching forward of technological development has improved the way people live and
the way companies serve their needs. One such development is 4G LTE cellular connectivity,
which allows for large downloads at high speed. Consumer demand for 4G LTE has put
pressure on carriers to replace the less profitable 2G service with more lucrative 4G LTE. This
replacement is known as the 2G sunset, or refarming. Meanwhile, the many businesses that
have relied on the 2G network for connecting their devices for all these years must decide
how to move forward. In this paper, we’ll discuss five important things that you didn’t know
about the 2G sunset that will help you make this decision.
The 2G sunset is well under way
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Just as a beautiful sunset entrances onlookers with its
subtlety, the technology sunset has taken on that subtle
characteristic in a big way. While AT&T announced that
the 2G shutdown would happen on January 1, 2017, what
many people didn’t realize was that it would begin
immediately. The spectrum refarming wouldn’t be an
abrupt event; rather, it would be a phased process.
However, by mid-2014, AT&T’s refarm was already
halfway complete. AT&T’s four-year plan has progressed
steadily and if you haven’t already been reminded of the
shutdown in your area, you will be soon.
3G isn’t far behind
AT&T isn’t the only carrier refarming its valuable spectrum.
Verizon will also sunset 2G, but it isn’t stopping there,
Verizon will also sunset its 3G CDMA network by 2021 .
What’s good for Verizon customers is that they were given a
longer warning period. Part of the reason Verizon can do this
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Five Things You Should Know About the 2G Sunset
is because its 2G and 3G are based on CDMA technology,
which uses spectrum more efficiently than AT&T’s GSM tech.
In short, CDMA allows for sharing of the same spectrum so
that Verizon doesn’t have quite the same degree of
pressure.
2.
Some 2G support still exists
(but it’s not quite the same)
3.
While the top two cellular providers have announced the
definite shutdown of early generations of cellular
technology, Sprint and T-Mobile are taking things more
slowly. Sprint, seeing the opportunity for potential
earnings has decided to offer service on its network at
least as long as Verizon, that is, through 2020. T-Mobile
has made a similar statement, that they will support 2G
for the foreseeable future. The thing is, AT&T and Verizon
have long been the top two providers in terms of
reliability and performance. Simply put, the cellular
providers have better coverage, much better coverage .
Not all 2G coverage is created equal and this has
important implications for M2M customers.
More sunsets to come...
Carriers sunsetted 1G in the late nineties. 2G and 3G are
sunsetting now. Why can’t wireless providers just stick with
a technology? It really comes down to profitability. Wireless
carriers can make more money by refarming spectrum to
more efficient technologies.
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Five Things You Should Know About the 2G Sunset
...and keep coming
That means they can serve more customers with the same
amount of spectrum that the old tech used. More customers
means more money per spectrum. What’s more is wireless
providers can also charge more for consumer focused high
data usage technologies than they can for low-data usage
applications like M2M. In other words, it makes good
business sense for them to sunset old technology and
upgrade to new technology. In a real way, they have to,
otherwise someone else will and put them out of business.
These driving forces behind the spectrum refarming are very
compelling and won’t be going away. Market forces will
continue to push this pattern forward into the future.
4.
The 2G sunset could turn out
to be great for your company
5.
If you are a current M2M connected business, or are
considering connecting your devices to the Internet of
Things, the 2G sunset may actually save you time and
resources. How? There are a few reasons. The sunset
shows us that cellular carriers are not incentivized to
cater to M2M customers. It simply isn’t profitable enough.
The relentless drive for profitability means the lifespans
of their technologies are too short for many M2M
applications to be profitable. So a key decision criterion
for finding a wireless connectivity solution is network
longevity. You will need a network that can support your
devices for 20+ years, perhaps more, without needing
hardware changes. We’ve also learned that the coverage
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Five Things You Should Know About the 2G Sunset
5.
offered by various 2G providers is not equal, and
unfortunately for many current 2G customers, the carriers
with the best coverage are also the first to sunset. So
excellent coverage is the second decision criterion when
choosing a M2M connectivity solution provider.
Fortunately, Ingenu’s RPMA technology is designed from the ground up to provide
unprecedented network longevity. In fact, Ingenu can offer network longevity of 20+ years, by
contract. RPMA technology also provides coverage orders of magnitude better than other
wireless providers. What’s more is it also offers the full-featured connectivity many have come
to expect such as firmware download capability, enterprise-grade security, and message
acknowledgment. Contact us today to learn more on how RPMA can make this a great time
for your company.
Want more information?
Please contact us via email at [email protected] or visit our webiste www.ingenu.com
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