22 April 2024
Streetwave and the Northumberland County Council (NCC) have released the findings of a study that monitored the effects of Vodafone’s recent 3G switch-off in the region. The study found this resulted in a small-modest boost in 4G/5G coverage and mobile broadband performance.
Vodafone largely completed the process of switching off its old 3G network in February 2024. Mobile operators have been compensating for the 3G switch-off in some areas by introducing upgrades for newer 4G and 5G services. The removal of 3G also freed up 10MHz of spectrum in their 900MHz band to be re-farmed for use by modern services, which could boost network speeds and coverage.
Vodafone is now providing ‘Essential Coverage‘ across 92% of locations in Northumberland (up by 3%) and its average mobile data download and upload speeds are faster by approximately 10% after the switch off. Operators are deemed to have Essential Coverage by Streetwave in locations where the network provides users with above 1Mbps download, 0.5Mbps upload, and below 100ms latency.
However, the results also show a sharp rise in dependence upon even older 2G networks, which must be considered when it comes time to remove 2G by 2033. Older 2G signals remain useful as a low-power fallback and are still necessary for some rural areas, as well as for particular applications (e.g. many smart meters and other IoT/M2M services remain dependent upon 2G).
