What you need to know
- T-Mobile states it’s retiring its 2G network on August 3, and anyone with devices that use this network will need to transition to newer phones.
- An interview with T-Mobile’s chief network officer, Ankur Kapoor, revealed that T-Mobile has held onto 2G for so long to not leave customers who rely on it in the rearview.
- Recently, T-Mobile unveiled a limited edition $60 jersey with Umbro for its Member Month perks, ready to drop on July 7.
T-Mobile is making a change to its network. It’s dropping some old network technology, and it’s probably for the best.
The company announced in its Network Evolution log that it is preparing to retire its 2G GSM network. T-Mobile says its old 2G network will be shut down on August 3, 2026. With 2G preparing to go, T-Mobile reminds customers that anyone still using that old tech will lose “call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, or fixed dialing numbers via device settings” on Android and iOS.
For Android specifically, you’d have trouble “sending large multimedia messages, such as photos or videos.”
While it might seem odd that T-Mobile was still holding onto its 2G network, considering its Evolution log says it dropped 3G (CDMA) in July 2022, an interview with Fierce Network shed some light on that. T-Mobile’s chief network officer, Ankur Kapoor, told the publication that it didn’t want to “leave a bunch of customers in the lurch.” What’s more, Kapoor tells Fierce Network that it observed many people entering the United States with devices that didn’t have VoLTE enabled.
However, now T-Mobile has gotten to a point where customers won’t lose anything by shutting down 2G. Kapoor says customers have been notified, and anyone still using an older device with 2G has “ample time” to migrate to newer phones with 5G.
The network evolves
Android Central’s Take
I’m sure there is still someone using 2G, right? It’s a big blue world we live on, after all. A quick Google search would tell you how much a security risk 2G is compared to the current standard. In a way, T-Mobile’s doing us a favor.
As we’ve mentioned, T-Mobile shut down its 3G (CDMA) network in 2022, but it knocked out Sprint’s version first. The notice about it came several months prior in 2021, as T-Mobile gave users four months to grab new devices before the January 1, 2022, deadline. Shortly after, it revealed that it would shut down Sprint’s LTE network on June 30, 2022.
Funnily enough, T-Mobile said in 2021 that it would eventually retire its 2G and 3G networks; however, the former is only leaving us now, years later.
Let’s also not forget that T-Mobile is capping off its month of freebies with a rather unique $60 jersey for customers. The latest Member Month perk is a limited-edition Umbro soccer jersey that customers can grab through the T-Life app starting July 7.
