Wireless carrier Verizon has announced that it is shutting down its 3G network at the end of 2022, a move that will effectively end its 3G support. The company had pushed back against the sunsetting of its 3G network several times now, but seems to have found an end date for the service:
We will turn off the last of the 3G CDMA network on December 31, 2022, months after our competitors have shut off their networks completely. The date will not be extended again. We’re communicating this again now in order to provide customers plenty of time to complete their migration.
Verizon initially announced plans to shutter its 3G network in 2016, stating that the 3G service
would cease working on December 31, 2019. Verizon ultimately delayed until the end of 2020 to give impacted customers more time to figure out their plans, and then in January 2021, said that the network would not be shut down in the near future.
While Verizon has kept its 3G network operational, it stopped activating 3G phones in July 2018. The company stated that it has been working with customers who still have 3G devices to transfer them over to 4G and 5G phones, and less than one percent now use the 3G network.
Verizon has encouraged customers with a 3G device to transition to a 4G device, and with the cutoff date approaching, 3G customers could see a degradation or complete loss of service, with service centers offering “limited troubleshooting help.”
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.