American operators stop their 3G networks

From 2022, the 3 American operators decided to stop their 3G networks, both in CDMA and UMTS.French subscribers with a 3G mobile will no longer be able to connect to the United States using this technology.

Aux Etats-Unis, les 3 grands opérateurs américains, AT&T, T-Mobile et Verizon, ont décidé de couper à partir de 2022 leurs réseaux 3G, qui ont permis de démocratiser les smartphones (iPhone, Android et Windows Phone). AT&T arrêtera ses réseaux 3G à partir de février 2022, tandis que Verizon arrêtera ses réseaux au 31 décembre 2022. Concernant T-Mobile, l'opérateur arrêtera sa 3G UMTS au 1er juillet 2022. Chez T-Mobile, l'arrêt des réseaux 3G concerne aussi les réseaux de Sprint, racheté en 2019, que ce soit en 3G (31 mars 2022) et en 4G (30 juin 2022). Seuls des réseaux 2G et les réseaux 4G et 5G seront disponibles aux Etats-Unis.

By turning off 3G technologies, operators release frequency band for 4G and 5G, better known as Refarming.The extinction concerns as much the CDMA 2000, the American 3G technology, as the UMTS, the European 3G, as well as the CDMA2000 Variant technologies EDO REV A and B and HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA+, better known as 3G+ commercial names (until'at 14 Mbps) and H+ (up to 42 Mbps).

For French subscribers, mobile phones will no longer be able to access 3G in the United States.But it will remain possible to connect to a few 2G networks as well as to 4G and 5G networks.However, French operators will have to activate volte (4G calls) to continue to receive and make calls from the United States.Indeed, without the volte, smartphones use 2G and 3G networks available to transmit calls and SMS.

In France, if Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom have already activated the volte, Free is gradually activating it.On the side of the MVNO, La Poste Mobile, Coriolis (future SFR), Prixtel (SFR), NRJ Mobile (Bouygues Telecom) and Nordnet (Orange) have activated it, but the others have not yet launched it.However, Orange announces the activation of volta internationally from February.