The 2G and 3G Mobile Switch Off
The UK's 3G networks have gone and 2G begins closing in 2029. There is no stop sell here and no single national date — each network has its own, nothing is frozen, and the thing that stops is rarely a phone.
Request a quote3G has already gone. 2G has dates, and they are not the same date.
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The UK's 3G networks are gone. It did not happen on one national date the way the copper switch off will: each network set its own timetable and worked through it — EE and Vodafone through early 2024, Three at the end of 2025 and Virgin Media O2 in early 2026. 2G is the layer still standing, and it now has dates. EE has said it will begin switching 2G off from May 2029, Virgin Media O2 from summer 2029, and Vodafone in spring 2030. Three never built a 2G network at all. Behind all of them sits a commitment agreed with government that all public 2G and 3G will be gone by 2033, which is the backstop rather than the plan.
Those are start dates for a phased retirement rather than the day everything stops, and the operators have said some areas will clear before others. So the question that decides your exposure is not when 2G ends but which network each of your SIMs sits on. What none of it comes with is a stop sell. Nothing is frozen, nothing is blocked, and you can buy, move and change mobile services the whole way through — which sounds like the easier position and is exactly why it gets left. The warning also only travels as far as the billing relationship. A network can write to the business that holds the SIM, but it cannot tell you what radio is inside a lift unit or an alarm communicator it did not sell, and that equipment is usually bought from somebody with no relationship to the network at all.
This is where the two switch offs meet, and it is the part worth reading twice. A great deal of PSTN migration work moves equipment onto mobile: the lift emergency phone becomes a GSM unit, the alarm dialler gets a SIM, the card terminal comes off the phone line. Some of that equipment is 2G-only, because a 2G module was cheap, low-power and had blanket coverage — which is exactly why it was specified. Solving a deadline in January 2027 with a device that has one of its own in 2029 is a real and avoidable outcome. Avoiding it means asking which radio technologies a replacement supports before it is fitted rather than after.
The second thing worth knowing is that a device showing 4G is not automatically safe, because voice and data are separate questions. A handset or a module can carry data over 4G and still drop to an older network to place a call, unless it supports voice over LTE. Kit like that was fine while 3G was there to catch it and is now sitting on 2G. When the drop happens it is usually silent — a tracker keeps its power light on and stops reporting, an alarm panel looks healthy until the night it needs to dial out — which is why the radio inside unattended equipment gets established deliberately or not at all.
Which of your devices are on 2G?
Almost none of these are phones, which is why they get missed. Walk the site and the vehicles and look for anything with a SIM in it that nobody has touched in years.
- Card and PDQ terminals, especially portable ones used away from a counter
- Alarm and fire panel signalling paths, including anything added during a PSTN migration
- Lift emergency phones fitted with a GSM unit rather than a line
- Vehicle and asset trackers, and anything telemetry fitted by a third party
- Environmental and metering sensors on remote or unattended sites
- Older handsets and works phones that predate voice over LTE
- Any SIM installed by an equipment supplier rather than bought by you
What tends to have a 2G radio inside it
Card and payment terminals
Portable and countertop terminals were frequently built around a 2G module, and a good number were fitted in the first place to get a terminal off an analogue line.
Alarm, fire and lift signalling
Diallers, communicators and the GSM unit fitted to a lift phone. The radio inside is the alarm or lift company's choice, not a setting you can change.
Trackers, telemetry and sensors
Vehicle trackers, tank and meter monitors, environmental sensors. Specified for low power and years in the field, which is exactly why the radio in them is old.
Handsets without voice over LTE
Older and cheaper phones, and some rugged models, run data on 4G but drop to an older network to make a call. The icon on the screen does not tell you which.
Kit somebody else installed
EV chargers, vending, signage, gate controllers, CCTV on a SIM. If a contractor fitted it and nobody has touched it since, assume nothing about what is inside.
The fallback layer itself
Not a device. 2G is what a marginal signal drops to in a plant room or a rural yard, so losing it removes the margin under kit that only just manages.
Who we work with
We are independent of any single network or vendor, so the recommendation follows the requirement.
Mobile networks
We are not tied to one network, so the tariff follows the coverage your teams actually need.
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The 2G and 3G Mobile Switch Off — Common Questions
Has 3G already been switched off in the UK?
Yes. Every UK network has retired 3G, and they did it individually rather than on one national date — EE and Vodafone through early 2024, Three at the end of 2025 and Virgin Media O2 in early 2026. So this is not a deadline approaching. Anything that depended on 3G has already stopped, or has quietly fallen back to 2G without telling anybody.
When is 2G being switched off?
There is no single national date, but there are operator dates. EE has said it will begin switching 2G off from May 2029, Virgin Media O2 from summer 2029 and Vodafone in spring 2030. Three never built a 2G network at all. Behind those sits a commitment agreed with government that all public 2G and 3G will be gone by 2033, which is the backstop rather than the plan.
How is this different from the PSTN switch off?
Structurally, in the way that matters to you. The copper switch off has one owner, one national date and a stop sell that already blocks changes, so you are told and you are stopped. This has several networks, several dates, and no freeze on anything — you can buy, move and change mobile services the whole way through. The copper deadline arrives as a letter. This one arrives as equipment that quietly stopped reporting.
We moved our lift and alarm lines onto GSM units for the PSTN switch off. Are those at risk?
Possibly, and it is the first thing worth checking. A great deal of switch-off migration work put analogue devices onto mobile, and the cheapest, lowest-power module available was often a 2G one. That means a fix bought for the 2027 deadline can carry a 2029 one inside it. Ask the installer or the equipment maker which radio technologies the unit supports, and get the answer in writing before the next one goes in.
Our phones show 4G. Does that mean they are unaffected?
Not on its own, because voice and data are separate questions. A handset or a module can carry data over 4G and still drop to an older network to place a call, unless it supports voice over LTE. Devices like that were fine while 3G existed to catch them and are now sitting on 2G. Most recent business handsets are unaffected; older, cheaper and some rugged models are the ones to check.
How do we find out which of our devices are affected?
By working from the SIM list rather than from memory. Every SIM on a bill belongs to something, and the job is to name that something, find its model number, and put the radio question to whoever made or maintains it — the alarm company, the tracker supplier, the terminal provider. For SIMs on accounts we manage we can put the same question to the network. Start with the unattended kit, because that is where a failure goes unnoticed longest.
Can you replace the affected equipment?
Not the equipment itself, and we would rather say so plainly. We supply connectivity, not card terminals, alarm panels, lift units or telemetry hardware, and the radio in those is generally part of the unit rather than something that can be upgraded in place. What we can do is supply the replacement connectivity and help you build the list to take to the companies who do maintain that equipment.
What replaces 2G for low-power devices like sensors and trackers?
Usually LTE-M or NB-IoT, the low-power standards built for exactly this kind of device — small messages, long battery life, equipment left alone for years at a time. The caveat is that their coverage is not the blanket layer 2G was and it differs between networks, so it is a question to ask about the specific networks your SIMs will use rather than a like-for-like swap you can assume.
Our IoT SIMs are multi-network. Does that protect us?
It moves the date rather than removing it. A multi-network SIM attaches to whichever network it can see, so 2G remains available to it until the last network carrying 2G turns it off. That buys time, but not a fixed or knowable amount, because you do not control which network a device picks or when a particular area is cleared. Treat it as headroom rather than as an answer.
Does losing 2G matter where signal is already poor?
2G has been the layer things fall back to when the signal is marginal — a plant room, a basement, a rural yard, the bottom of a lift shaft. Removing it takes that margin away from a device that only just manages on 4G today. It matters most for anything whose job is to raise an alarm, where working most of the time is not the standard being applied.
More Mobile Solutions
Where we cover the 2g and 3g mobile switch off
We deliver this across the UK. These 8 are where a director is actually based — each page names who you would be dealing with, and what the local economy is made of.
Not sure what is on 2G?
Tell us what you have on SIMs — terminals, alarms, lift lines, trackers — and we will establish which network each sits on and what has to move before its date.