A lot of embedded "IoT" type devices use particular low-power/low-data type connections, sometimes on specialty plans from the cell companies. Oftentimes these are in custom or semi custom hardware.

In my case we had deployed a bunch of cellular routers, these were all 3G Verizon EVO network. When the date came for that network to shut down we reached out to the manufacturer and they let us know that even though the modem was a modular unit effectively the hardware was not capable of communicating with an L

They are devices that have in-built GPRS/2G era modems and SIMs that typically only support 2G, but they still work so there's little impetus to replace them. In some cases, the hardware might support a 3G or LTE SIM, but unless some one knows that and is prepared to do it, bearing in mind in many cases no one really knows where all these things are, that's a non-starter too. I think what GP was implying was that old smartphones are not really the significant part of the problem, and they are right.

The low-data systems he's talking about are stuff like Smartmeters - supposedly hundreds of thousands of these remain in the UK alone. There are also an insane number of telemetry devices installed in rural areas (around reservoirs and so on, not just just "houses in the countryside") by utilities, where 2G coverage was available but a fixed line link would be prohibitively challenging or expensive for the low data volumes these device typically send, which is often in the 10-100Kb/day range so 2G is more than enough. To give you an idea of scale, one UK water utility is currently replacing more than than 10,000 of these devices.

In case you're wondering, there's a good reason for that being the case in the UK, and I assume elsewhere, and it's that the cellular network providers saw an opportunity to provide data-only 2G SIMs in bulk to solve that kind of low-bandwith remote telemetry problem with setup like a combined amount of MB per day across all the hundreds or thousands of SIMs in the account. It was a good deal for everyone concerned, and utility providers in particular were all over it; no need for connections to the landline network, they could just bolt the box to a wall/post/DIN rail, and provide some power, sometimes by battery, but often by a small pinwheel turbine or solar panel in non-domestic installs - and mostly let it be (you see these things roadside all over the UK if you look). Of course, no one thought that anyone might want to switch of the 2G network before all these devices had naturally EoL'd, but industrial parts like these do tend to run for many, many, years without issue, so here we are.

> Car companies need to EXCLUDE unnecessary tech. There, FTFY. Get a magnet, attach to dash, stick smartphone, there, all the tech you need if you want it. If I want a cell phone on wheels I want the CHOICE to do so.

Yeah because my driving experience is improved by a non-integrated device I can't control the steering wheel, with a ludicrously tiny screen, and a propensity to accidentally fall off in the best case scenario, or worse staying where it is partially blocking your ability to see out of your vehicle.

Your "unnecessary tech" is now minimum expectations for many buyers, and above all is *mandatory* by regulators in many countries (See EU e-call regulation which mandates all cars have the ability to call emergenc

True reasons. But Germany was and is slow, too slow, implementing solutions.