Nothing in the statement about SMETS2 energy meters or eCall - enabled vehicles, both of which rely on 2G.

We'll be "encouraged" to go out and buy new ones! Bish bash bosh..sorted. Dunno about the "smart" meters though and I'm not convinced the Government does either.

So, the bet has to be on whether they achieve the smart meter rollout target before the whole lot get rendered obsolete then.

A tenner on "no" please.

eCall: Who gives a shit?

"eCall: Who gives a shit?"

Probably anyone with it in their vehicle when they have a single vehicle incident.

TBF there is a 4G version of eCall, and anything being sold now is on that version.

Cars tend to last longer than handsets though, so likely to be quite a few still using the circuit switched system in 2033.

So, "smart" meters are considered to be in the same category as other IoT tat like doorbells and thermostats, to be replaced every 5 years when the supporting network and servers are abandoned? Nice little earner for the energy companies, until people wise up and just say no.

I resisted a smart meter for a long time, but finally gave in a month or so before completing on the sale of the house. It's somebody else's problem now, I suppose. No choice in the new house, but it looks like it won't matter soon anyway if the underlying network is going away.

How come El Reg are now putting Dorries' reality-TV escapades in articles when comments mentioning dromedary dactyl dining were previously being moderated?

El Reg decides what can appear in El Reg.

bottom line - It's their responsibility, we can only post our humble offerings in hope.

Because it's only polite when mentioning a politician to cite their most important achievements to date.

What about those parts of the UK yet to receive reliable mobile signal, never mind 2g and 3g, areas which are presumably very low on the list for upgrades to 4G or 5G. The only semi usable data round here comes from wifi, via copper wires as long as it isn't windy or raining, and the broadband stays up for our glorious 3Mbps if we are lucky...

I think you can safely say if they don't care about those areas now, then they won't care about them 10 years from now either. Or it could make things better when deploying services becomes more cost effective. Who knows. At the end of the day, if the economics don't add up for the provider then they won't do it will they. Ofcom have mandated coverage requirements in licenses before, if you don't think the operators are living up to them where you're referencing then complain.

OTOH BT's wet string is crap round here. I got around twice the bandwidth when I stuck a magic mobile router on my window sill. And it's a lot more reliable, too.

The shared rural network is supposed to address that. It's 4G only though.

Not enough votes unless they're marginal constituencies.

3G in Germany is being phased out this year. I think 2G may stay around for a while, because of the range and there are lots of embedded devices with it, but nothing using much bandwidth as there never was much anyway, so it will probably be easy enough to pare back the spectrum used and reallocate.

I think things in the UK will probably be fairly similar in practice with spectrum being awarded for a certain period of time and most operators having already moved on to LTE kit in most locations anyway, because it's easier to manage and maintain.

.....no mention that 5G needs more cells.....so GCHQ can do MUCH better tracking of the great unwashed (including moi!).

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Long live 2G!

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Just saying!

If you're part of the great unwashed why go to the expense of 5G tracking, they can simply follow your aroma...

Who cares about 4G or 5G? I've been impressed lately by Openreach vans driving around and rodding out all the ducts. They said they want to make sure they're clear for when they put fibre into them. A couple also came to our front door, asking how the cable got to our house and where it terminated, 'so that if you ask for fibre, they'll know what they need to do'. It all seemed like genuine preparations for FTTP rollout to me. (and Cu ripout :) )

Where I live, every time Openreach (usually Murphy Telecom engineers) come round to do anything they spend half a day figuring out which box we're connected to, then the second half of the day scratching their arses.

The next day a second team arrive, spend the morning finding the box etc...

Switching off 2G and 3G will enable operators to transition fully to more energy efficient and high capacity networks finally force customers with near-indestructible old phones onto a regular and profitable upgrade cycle.