Three UK Finally Switch Off Remaining 3G Mobile Sites as 4G and 5G Boosted
Mobile operator Three UK (VodafoneThree), which at the start of 2025 confirmed (here) that the “vast majority” of their 3G sites had now been switched off – save for a “small number” of sites were still live to avoid customers losing service, have now confirmed that those remaining sites were finally switched off at the end of November 2025.
The removal of 3G has freed up some radio spectrum that can be re-farmed for use by modern 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services, which could boost network performance and coverage. On top of that, operators are benefitting from some big cost and energy savings due to not having to cater for the old network.
All of the primary mobile network operators, except O2, have now switched off their 3G services and O2 is set to reach the same stage by the end of this year (they’re currently doing Scotland). The operators are now starting to focus on the 2G switch-off, which will take longer for O2 as they have to maintain some of it until Energy Smart Meters have been upgraded to use the new 4G Communications Hub (modem); this will take a few years.
Advertisement
VodafoneThree Statement
Of Three’s 16,000 network masts, only 3,000 were 3G-only. These were not only upgraded to 4G and 5G; the software of many were also upgraded with Multi-Operator Core Network technology. This enables Vodafone customers to use their signal – a key initial phase of VodafoneThree’s plan to build the UK’s best network.
All this work was methodically undertaken in tandem with changes to Three’s core network. This ensured, for example, that there was no disruption in service for customers of MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) that use Three’s network (such as SMARTY) or for foreign visitors to the UK roaming on Three’s network.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Netgem TV PLEIO Streaming Box Back in Stock with 12-Months Free Sub
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person's legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
Does that now mean that the name “3” is redundant and will get switched off as well?
Goodbye, 3G! You were the future, once. Gosh, all those squillions spent on 3G licences, back in the day. Still, it had a good run, and introduced most of us to real mobile internet for the first time, on the early generations of proper smartphones. Now I’m waiting to see if ThroDaFone can actually give me 5G where I live – but not so far.
Good news – provided that the refarming does go ahead and without delay.
Three is no boost on speed where I live. Same old mast, same old speed. D/L around 25 to 50Mbps and U/L around 15 to 25Mbps. There is no extra speed boost nothing yet. 5G is only outside only getting 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up (don’t believe it real 5G)
The link to the O2 3G switch off in Scotland is an ISPN article published on 29th September in which O2 announced that it would commence the switch off on 5 November. Looking at the vast areas coloured blue on the O2 3G coverage map, it appears unlikely that O2 will meet its objective of switching off the rest of the UK in the next 26 days.