With 5G taking off big time across the U.S., cell carriers are planning to shut down legacy networks like 3G. Verizon says its 3G network will no longer be available as of January 1, 2023; T-Mobile is planning to sunset its network on July 1; and AT&T’s has been nonexistent since February 22 of this year.
That means a slew of older devices created to run only on 3G are no longer able to connect to cell networks at all. The IEEE is warning that a not-insignificant number of devices other than smartphones are destined to stop working as 2022 drones on, with Verizon customers being hit last at the end of the year.
