Re: [Telecom] When will 4G be Obsolete?

- B
- Bill Horne
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
1 year ago

Sat, Jul 30, 2022 10:08 PM

For practical purposes, Verizon is removing 4G on December 31,

2022. The company had said that it would continue into 2023, but then they sent me a letter saying that my wife's "4G LTE" phone didn't meet their criteria for 4G, and that I would have to buy a new phone - limitied to "their" brand of 4G, of course - to continue her 4G service.

I've decided to do without both Verizon Mobile and their deceptive marketing: I got a 5G phone for myself and switched to Ting. My wife's "4G LTE"ng phone will need to be replaced, most likely with the same brand and model that I have, but I might put an Internet-only texting and talk app on it, give her mine (again ...), and use the 4G LTE phone around my home, since we'll have her phone when we travel.

Bill

- J
- John Levine
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
1 year ago

Sun, Jul 31, 2022 1:02 AM

According to Bill Horne snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com:

No, they're turning off 3G at the end of the year.

What's confusing is that some of the carriers lied about their early "4G" phones which were really 4G data but 3G voice, so they will stop working when 3G turns off. Full 4G is sometimes called 4G VoLTE.

Doubly confusing is that some 4G phones have VoLTE but some carriers or MVNOs don't turn it on. I have a Samsung S9 that no longer works on Tracfone because they can't turn on its VoLTE with a Verizon SIM which is all they have now.

But it works on Ting which is also Verizon underneath. Beats me.

At this point I'd suggest Ting if you don't use much data, for $10/mo for voice+SMS, and $5/GB shared among all phones on your account. Or Mint for $15/mo for voice+SMS+4GB if you pay a year at a time.

Mint has a one week free trial at

formatting link

- F
- Fred Goldstein
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
1 year ago

Sun, Jul 31, 2022 3:19 PM

LTE isn't going away. "5G" is a set of extensions to LTE, and mostly compatible with older devices on the older bands. Verizon is discon- tinuing 3G (CDMA) service, turning off cells this year. And it may be requiring LTE phones to support Voice over LTE (VoLTE) as their method of voice calling, which is not perfectly standardized across devices. So there may be some older LTE phones that still used CDMA for voice and LTE for data. Those are toast. I just bought a new 4G LTE (no 5G) phone for use on Verizon and there seems to be no risk about losing support. Verizon still sells some such models, like the Motorola G Power.