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This piece of news may not be welcome for those owning the original iPhone or the BlackBerry Pearl. AT&T has confirmed that it has indeed discontinued its 2G services as of January 1st of this year. To its credit, the second biggest wireless carrier in the United States did promise more than four years ago that it would do so. Well now, it has been made official.
This latest move from the major US wireless carrier should not affect that many people, except maybe for those who still currently own mobile devices that can only make GSM phone calls or use EDGE for data. And when one looks at the bigger overall picture, even today’s most basic handsets are now compatible with 3G and LTE networks. But for those people who still can remember what it was like to use a 2G phone, the fact that AT&T is shutting it down should still give them reason to pause.
So now that the American wireless carrier is doing away with its 2G network, what happens next? Well for starters, AT&T is looking to retool that newly liberated spectrum for LTE. More importantly, the freed spectrum will also be put to good use making room for the mobile operator’s future 5G service.
Some people might liken this transition to the end of analog cellular service, which happened over eight years ago. Sure, it might some people sad, but ultimately, it led to a newer and better form of wireless technology, one in which we are still using now and is now becoming the basis for yet another improved version of the tech.
Furthermore, it is yet another reminder that, yes, change is the only constant in the world. And when it comes to mobile technology, change is likely quicker to happen. Back in the days of EDGE, the fact that it allowed mobile users to enjoy data access (mainly for checking emails and surfing a much less advanced world wide web) was like a huge leap in technology. Fast forwarding to now, EDGE feels like a centuries old tech. With more and more people nowadays consuming then unimaginable volumes of data, 2G tech would definitely be useless. Many of the things we take for granted now, like downloading an image or running an average size mobile app, would overwhelm a 2G network. This is why we should be grateful that wireless technology is always evolving for the better.
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