I find it very troubling that people are talking about the removal of 3G, i thought 3G was where its at and should be invested in? As someone else said move some spare 4G spectrum over for capacity 👍

Well they do have to worry about all those Galaxy S4 owners who do not want to upgrade

I've said before that once all phones have VoLTE (and hopefully many older, popular, models are updated) then you can begin to plan the removal of older devices. I would imagine within 5 years the bulk of old 4G phones won't be in use, even on the second hand market.

Networks can then do various incentives to get people to get rid of their old devices before you have a cut off date, whereby a non VoLTE phone will be restricted from access to 4G and can only use 2G (or 3G if still present). There might be a bit of fuss in the press, but it's doubtful as by then nobody would want to hang on to an old phone anyway.

Once only VoLTE phones exist, all barriers to 4G coverage go out the window. Even 2G wouldn't need to be set as fallback, but rather just to provide some service to 2G handset users and M2M devices.

Yes, yes I really must get a new phone...

They'll always have 2G .

Which can do sub-par quality calls and 150kbps!

I did not spend £380 on a phone 2 years ago, for it to end up doing 150kbps and lower quality voice calls!

How many people still use 2g only?

I know quite a few people that always have there Internet turned off on there phones so end up using 2g only for there calls

It's all well and good saying that, but if you are somewhere where only 2G coverage exits, I'm sure you'll agree that 2G is better than nothing. If it was an emergency and you had a choice between using 3G or not being able to call 999, what would you choose?

That's why 2G is useful. It might be 20 odd years old and poor by today's standards, but you can call and text over it and even send an iMessage or email over it. It's better than nothing.

Except by the time it's only doing that 4G1800 will have the same power as 2G hopefully and your S4 will probably be nearly 10 years old. Get used to it it's not all about you and your sodding S4, the network has to be forward looking and decisive or nothing gets done.

I would refer you to my previous answer but seeing as you clearly can't stand listening to opinions opposing to your own there's no point. Are you sure you aren't Jeremy Corbyn - you seem quite similar.

Here kitty kitty. 🤐

That's what happens when you buy a discontinued handset

It wasn't discontinued when I bought it though
The reason why I went for the S4 was because I couldn't afford the S5 at over £500 and I needed something better than my old crappy ZTE Blade 3 (which has been passed on to other family members).

Hopefully one day, I'll be able to get an LG G4, and then shove it on LTE/WCDMA only mode (hopefully the G4 supports VoLTE!). I never want to see GSM ever again!

EE must agree, my Sony z5c received an (overdue) update today. The big change of note is that I now have 4G calling (even though the handset was never advertised as 4G calling compatible, only WiFi calling).

Perhaps this is a sign that EE are moving forwards with updating older handsets? Here is hoping that they update all handsets that should technically support it.

Don't forget those people that just like long battery life, if you only ever use Internet for the odd email or IM's then switching to 2G can mean that you extend your battery life significantly. Whether it's more efficient of just that the signal tends to be stronger, so less effort signalling back and forth, I don't know.

But it does mean that many phones can achieve far longer times between charging (compared to 3G). I switch when I know I'm going to be in a poor signal area.

They;ve added Stamina mode too (although not as fully featured as it used to be) and I had to turn WiFi calling on yet again....

At the risk of poking the bear, by the time this actually becomes an issue your phone will probably be long dead and you'll have upgraded to the Galaxy S7

First reports of it being discontinued was June 2014, so if you bought it 2 years ago you bought a discontinued handset


Ah, so you deliberately bought the old model? What's that saying? Buy cheap, buy twice...

Pretty sure the S4 lasted more than 2 months, it's a 2013 phone lol

2 years ago was 2014?

You've got this the wrong way round, it'll be an S2 next. Just for the legacy feeling.

Well spotted lol I must've misread.

I don't really understand the drum banging over 3G. Maybe the drum needs taking away.......

S5 surely?

Haha, I do see your point though! Though I've also heard that the Galaxy S7 also aggressively drops to 3G (or even 2G), so that might be an issue as well... I need the best 3G/4G handset that won't keep dropping down to 2G once the signal reaches about 5 ASU on 3G (which is still perfectly usable) or dropping from 4G straight to 2G. It also needs to be Android, and also needs VoLTE support, so that when 3G does finally go, I can go 4G only and still make/receive calls.


Actually bought it in May 2014, so it was still "not discontinued", if you know what I mean! And places such as Argos were still selling it.


Yep, I deliberately got the S4 because I couldn't afford £500+ and needed an urgent replacement. And when 3G goes kaput, I'll still use it as a 4G data device, assuming that EE don't boot it off 4G...


Yes it certainly did, and because of the specs of modern day flagships (people don't always need the most up to date spec) it was still a good buy. Not such a good buy when the S6 came out (as the S5 would have been better) but still very good value for money.


No, no no no! That won't even run Android 4.2 - and the S2 doesn't even support DC-HSPA+ (42.2Mbit/s), let alone 4G... It'll be in the camp of "made obsolete when 3G is switched off".

On a more serious note, does the LG G4 support VoLTE? If so, then it may be a good investment, as I know it has service menus that I can use to jam it into LTE/WCDMA, a feature that, if present on the S4, would not make me moan about 2G GSM...

Its a good thing no uk network has announced a date for 3G switchoff then isn't it?

When such a thing happens you can be sure there will be at least 2, probably 4 years notice. AT&T USA gave over 5 years notice of turning off their 2G, and they are squeezed with spectrum (using 1900mhz for both GSM 2G and WCDMA 3G).

I think everyone should stop talking about 3G here; its ruined this thread.

Chances are, most of getting to 95% Geo will be 4G800 and possibly 4G700, as 4G1800 won't make it past the current 2G1800 coverage area unless new masts are added.

I hate to say it, and I know that I've been moaning about how 3G should stay, as it is the best of both worlds in terms of data and calls/texts (particularly for non 4G devices etc), but I think you're right. In terms of which technology to cull first, 3G would likely go before 2G (despite 2G being much older), because of the cell breathing issues and the higher frequency, meaning that 3G will never match 2G1800/4G1800 coverage levels (with 4G1800 cranked up). That, and I've heard from people on here that 2G is more power efficient than 3G, so M2M would be better on 2G.

Though hopefully, a 3G switch off will be quite a few years away, so that it gives people time to abandon their 2G/3G devices and have devices that are 4G/VoLTE as standard. Then, when virtually no one is using 2G any more, it can go.
I know that eventually, we'll end up with an all 4G network, or a 4G/5G network, but it will go 2G/3G/4G -> 2G/4G -> 4G/(5G).

And yeah, I was being a bit unrealistic wasn't I, asking for extra 3G capacity in a small village in Lincs, for 2 days - when 4G was working perfectly ok. But hey, at least 3G actually worked this year; last year it was totally kaput!