2g phone

pumas

Will a 2g phone used only for calls and texts on ASDA payg(Vodaphone) network

need replacing following 3g & 2g cutoff? There are still a lot of 2g phones on sale.

flaneurs_lobster

Will a 2g phone need replacing when 2g is turned off? Yes.

Is it happening any time soon? No.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6446722/2g-or-4g/p1

PHK

One slight proviso is that for some time, providers have been reassigning some of the 2G frequencies to 4G reducing capacity. Their reasoning being that fewer people are using 2G and it’s mostly machine to machine use (eg smart meters). 

So it’s possible that 2G only phones might experience lack of capacity in some areas so calls don’t connect. Also any 4G phones that don’t support VoLTE (most likely with an incompatible provider) will drop to 2G for calls when 3G is switched off. Which in some areas could cause some issues. 

The one exception to this seems to be O2 as (according to the last figures I saw) they have more 2G users. 

The general advice seems to be that if you have a 2G phone then there’s no need to take action now but next time you buy a phone make sure it’s 4G, which is nearly all of them even a cheap Nokia. 

ProDave

O2 will be the last ones to switch off 2g as it it their network used for smart meters.  

Asda mobile uses Vodafone, so you might want to switch to a PAYG provider using the O2 network soon to keep your phone going as long as possible.