My second hand device could have worked perfectly fine for another couple of years :(
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
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That doesn't sound right... Is there any data to back that up? The move to replace 3G is almost certainly due to the limited spectrum available to carriers, and additional bandwidth/capacity that redeploying their 3G spectrum to 5G will enable.
What percentage of actual users are on 8+ year old smartphones? What percentage of those phones receive security updates? I suspect it's only a few % (max), most of which are probably seniors who could replace their phone for $60 at Kmart. The reality is that no smartphone which has ceased security updates should continue to be used anyway.
The government should have just required carriers to provide these customers with a $100 inconvenience credit to purchase a replacement — that'd be many orders of magnitude cheaper than continuing to maintain the entire 3G network for 100k of the lowest value users.
I'm too lazy to link the video hugh Jefferies made, but it explains all this. The 3G shutdown will also affect a lot of 4G phones, because 4G just uses 3G for calls and VoLTE was introduced later. There's also stuff like fall detectors which automatically call emergency services if the user has a fall. The govt should make carriers give them a new phone, not money. The carriers could then send them something in the mail because of people in remote areas who would have to drive far for a new phone. Or, just keep 3G and when LTE is obsolete you can remove it because 3G will still be up.