Mobile market leader Orange announced on Monday that it will gradually shut down its 3G network starting in June 2024 and focus on moving customers to faster and more efficient 4G and 5G networks. Customers using 2G/3G devices will still be able to use voice and SMS services over the 2G network, but will need to upgrade to a 4G or 5G compatible device in order to use the internet service.

How Orange motivates the rejection of 3G technology

Orange says it is committed to offering all its customers a better connection experience, and the spectrum and resources previously used by 3G will be redirected to 4G/LTE (including Low Power LTE-M, NB-IoT) and 5G networks, much faster. and more energy efficient than the technology they replace.

• “The use of the 3G network, which was launched more than 20 years ago, has declined significantly and most customers are choosing the benefits of 4G/LTE or the performance and speed of 5G. Currently, data traffic on the 3G network is less than 3% of the total volume received on the Orange network, but the energy consumption generated by 3G is approximately 11% of the total volume of the entire network,” Orange said in a press release.

What Orange 3G subscribers need to do. The transition will be completed at the end of 2025

The transition from 3G to the new networks will be carried out gradually from June 2024 and will be completed at the end of 2025.

During this period, Orange customers using 3G services will be informed and contacted by phone, email or SMS by Orange support teams or a dedicated Orange representative.

• “Those currently using a 2G/3G device will still be able to use voice and SMS services on the 2G network, but will need to upgrade to a 4G or 5G compatible device in order to use the internet service.
• Customers who are still using the 3G network and are not taking advantage of the new 4G/5G technologies can also visit Orange stores nationwide to have their SIM card checked and replaced with a 4G compatible one if necessary. benefit from a wide range of 4G/5G compatible phones with special pricing and renewal discounts,” the company says.

For Orange customers who already use 4G/5G networks, as well as the 4G Call (VoLTE) service, the shutdown of the 3G network will not affect the operation of their services.

For business customers, M2M/IoT connectivity solutions using the 3G network will be able to connect to one of the 4G or 5G networks if the equipment in use allows it, otherwise they will use the 2G network.

• More information about the process of closing 3G networks is available at: orange.ro/tehnologii/3g/

Orange says the phasing out of 3G networks is a process that is already happening internationally, with telecoms operators looking to better meet current connectivity needs while transitioning to more efficient technologies with less impact on the environment.

The gradual closure of 3G networks announced by the Government last year

The gradual closure of 3G networks in Romania was mentioned last year in a draft government decision aimed at eliminating problems with receiving emergency calls to the number 112.

Networks based on 3G technology will be largely phased out this year, with some already switched off, while emergency 112 calls cannot be received and transmitted over 4G technology, being redirected to 2G networks. This leads to delays and poor location. information, in connection with which the Government established an emergency method, the government document says.

Information on the location of calls to the single emergency number 112 is currently insufficient in terms of quality, according to the foundational note of the emergency order passed by the government on Friday.

“This location information is provided automatically, without additional operations on the part of subscribers:

• or from the network layerusing the Cell-ID/Sector-ID method, which provides call location areas of more than 12.5 km2 for 58% of cells serving the infrastructure of mobile electronic communication providers in Romania, respectively more than 50 km2 for 25% of these cells,
• or from the mobile phone levelusing the Advanced Mobile Location method (based on the capabilities of smart terminals), which currently only provides location information for approximately 50% of all calls received at SNUAU.”, shown in accompanying note.

The problem is that at the moment, emergency calls are not received or transmitted via 4G technology, even if the terminal has such services, they are redirected in the network based on 2G technology.

This leads both to an additional load on this network (2G) and to a deterioration of the service (quality of voice service, call processing delays, deterioration of location information provided both from the mobile network and from the mobile terminal, or even the absence of an identifier for call terminal).

In addition, the document also states that during 2023, networks based on 3G technology will be largely decommissioned (some of which are already decommissioned), emergency calls and related information, including location information, will suffer in in the sense of a significant deterioration in the quality of these services, but also about their inadequacy.

5G technology does not provide voice services directly related to the architecture used (voice services are provided in a non-autonomous architecture, respectively, by redirection to the 4G infrastructure and, at the moment, implicitly to the 2G infrastructure for emergency 112 calls).

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To solve these problems, the Government on Friday adopted an emergency resolution that regulates the implementation of decisions on providing the 112 system with additional location information, which is formed by extracting and using special algorithms and methods of technical parameters from the infrastructure of mobile electronic communication networks. .

To implement localization solutions with increased reliability and accuracy at the network level, it is necessary to implement a standardized architecture in the infrastructure of mobile electronic communication providers.

• “Thus, mobile electronic communication providers in Romania need to transmit location information with increased reliability and accuracy from the network layer, called location-specific information, which indicates the restricted areas of the terminals that have made a call to the unique number 112. , regardless of the technology used (2G-4G/5G), the type of terminal used by the subscriber (smart or standard terminal, terminal with/without location sensors) or the conditions of use of electronic communication services (type of service/network technology, use of the “Emergency calls only” scenario “, access to data transmission services, etc.), the document says.

The determined location information indicates the likely geographic area in which the mobile phone user’s terminal equipment is located and is transmitted to System 112 in a geodetic format and as a geometric shape.

The determined location information will provide restricted location zones with accuracy expressed in meters.

• Read: Location issues 112: 3G networks start dropping and calls won’t go through 4G

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