Proximus to discontinue 3G in late 2024 – IT Pro – News

Belgian telecom operator Proximus will completely shut down its 3G network by the end of 2024. The space and spectrum infrastructure that becomes available will be used to strengthen the 4G and 5G network. According to Proximus, nothing will change for most customers.

Neighbor wants in their own words fully committed to the new generations of mobile network technology which, according to the company, are “higher performing and more energy efficient”. The Belgian operator believes that the amount of data sent via 3G on the Proximus network today represents less than 2% of total data traffic. According to the company, that traffic is also declining, so the need for 3G capacity is declining.

According to Proximus, most mobile devices on the Proximus network today have 4G. As a result, little or nothing would change for most of the company’s residential customers. Customers with older devices will see from the end of 2024 that calls and text messages will still be possible, but via the 2G network. This network will be supported until at least the end of 2027. Business customers, who in some cases still use the 3G network, will be notified by Proximus of the 3G outage in the coming months. Telenet, one of Proximus’ main competitors in Flanders, announced earlier this year which will pull the plug on 3G from September 2024. 2G will remain usable on Telenet until at least 2027.