The Dutch telecom providers with an own network yet have any concrete plans for the gsm network to turn it off. Recently decided to the American AT&T from 2017 only 3g and 4g to offer.
T-Mobile spokesman Michael Fox said that the phasing out of the 2g network is currently not an issue’. “It is still in use,” says Fox. The same says spokesman Joost Galema of Vodafone. “There is still a lot of use of the 2g network. Not only for calling and texting, but also for machine-to-machine communication.” So to communicate, for example, a part of the public transport network via the 2g network.
In addition, Vodafone is obliged to keep investing in the 2g network because of roaming contracts with other providers, said Galema. He says that Vodafone no date has been scheduled in which the 2g network is switched off; also, internally, there is no deadline. Stronger: last year the company expanded Vodafone 2g network with the faster gprs version edge.
According to Galema, it is difficult to predict what is going to be a few years, ‘especially in a dynamic market, as the telecom market’. That opinion is shared by KPN spokesman Stefan Simons. “It would be speculating,” he says. “I’m stopped. There is no sensible answer to give.” At the same time, says Simons also nothing to close but at this time there is still demand for communication on 2g, says Simons. Incidentally, said KPN for more than three years ago, ‘within a few years the power cord from its gsm network to want to pull.
In the autumn, the frequencies for mobile networks re-auctioned, including the gsm frequencies. From the answers of the providers, it can be inferred that they plan to re-frequencies to buy for their gsm networks. Incidentally, the gsm frequencies are also used for the successor of umts and hsdpa, namely lte.