O2 UK See Significant Inbound 2G and 3G Roaming Traffic as Switch-Off Looms
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today warned that they’re still seeing “significant inbound roaming traffic” on their legacy 2G and 3G networks in the UK. This comes ahead of their rapidly approaching plan to withdraw the service from 1st October 2025.
As most people will already know, O2 and other mobile operators are currently already in the process of switching off their older 2G and 3G mobile (mobile broadband) networks (here and here). O2’s move to withdraw 3G is due to reach completion by the end of 2025, while it will take several years to completely retire 2G as it remains necessary for various devices (e.g. Energy Smart Meters) and as a fallback in areas of poor 4G and 5G signals.
The change will free up radio spectrum so that it can be used to further improve the network coverage and mobile broadband speeds of more modern 4G and 5G networks, as well as future 6G services. The switch-off will also reduce the operators’ costs and power consumption.
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As part of these changes, O2 last year revealed that they would also be withdrawing inbound roaming services from their 2G and 3G networks on 1st October 2025 (here). This reflects the service that allows users from other operators to access O2’s local network and services. But there’s always a risk that, in some limited areas and circumstances, this could contribute to localised problems with securing basic mobile / voice coverage.
However, despite O2’s earlier notification, the operator has today warned that they are “still seeing significant inbound roaming traffic” on their 2G and 3G networks. “If your organisation does not take action now to check all your connected devices, it could lead to the loss of any services,” said Paul O’Sullivan, Director of Wholesale Mobile at VMO2.
Paul O’Sullivan said:
“We’ve proactively reached out to business customers, trade groups, Government bodies, and key industries – ensuring they are informed and preparing accordingly. As part of this, we are working closely with the Telecare Services Association (TSA), Ofcom and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to equip the telecare industry and critical national infrastructure providers with clear information on what they need to do now. Many telecare providers have already migrated to 4G devices, and the TSA is helping us identify the other SIMs that are yet to migrate.
We also contacted key roaming partners, the international providers whose customers indirectly roam on our network. Letters have been sent to trade organisations to help spread the word, and we’ve engaged in discussions with Government and Ofcom to share our plans and the support that we’re providing to our customers and the companies who use our network.
Despite these efforts, we are still seeing significant inbound roaming traffic on our 2G and 3G networks. Many organisations may already have established migration plans, with ambitions to activate them closer to October. But, for those that haven’t, it’s crucial to act now.
Only other network operators can facilitate roaming on our network – which by definition means anyone doing so isn’t our customer. This creates enormous barriers to us identifying and contacting the specific organisations or devices still relying on these networks. That’s why we’re urging all organisations – whether you’re a Virgin Media O2 customer or not – to check your connectivity solutions and devices by speaking to your provider.”
The situation could become awkward for O2 if they reach the deadline and find that the level of inbound roaming traffic is still “significant“, although at this stage there’s no indication of a delay being planned.
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.
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Probably people switching off 4G and 5G as it doesn’t work on O2!
Works fine here.
O2’s G2 has been getting worse in my home area – J1 of A14; 4G works OK and 5G is now comparable to 4G.
I’m not sure how well VoLTE roaming works, especially when the foreign network doesn’t support a phone for VoLTE but the home network does. Maybe this is the source of the higher 2/3G traffic.
3G switchoff should be a national scandal. Sure you might not care in the cities with your 4G and 5G, but large parts of the country still relied on it, and not we have just data dropouts with no coverage at all.
I live in a village and my network quite frequently slips back to 3G and sometimes no signal at all. I have no idea what to expect once this withdrawal happens.
Absolutely, it is a national scandal.
The first I knew about 3 shutting down their 3G network is when my phone stopped being able to make or receive calls.
Raised a fault with 3 and it turned out the issue was due to 3 turning off 3G in my area (and basically not having a functional 2G network in my area that can carry voice calls!).
3’s Support team said “oh, you should have contacted us 6 months ago because we were running a program to subsidise the purchase of 4G/5G compatible phones for people who would be affected by the 3G shutoff, which ended several months ago”, to which I replied I don’t remember 3 ever telling people about that program or it being advertised nor did 3 ever tell people in my area when the 3G would be shutoff in my area, they just turned it off.
I also asked why the 2G network in my area didn’t appear to even be able to carry voice calls, to which I was told that my phone needed to support WiFi calling and VoLTE.
And here is the kicker.
When I looked into whether my phone supported WiFi calling and VoLTE, it did.
However, it turned out that Sky had paid the manufacturer of my phone to disable those features, and the ability to unlock the bootloader, in all software versions that were on phones sold by any other retailer or mobile operator.
So I had to buy a new phone and abandon a perfectly good 4g-compatible mobile phone.
Every part of that problem should have been regulated by OFCOM and should have never have happened.
Depending on the phone and region the bands supported are different resulting in fallback to 3g/2g.
“The change will free up radio spectrum so that it can be used to further improve the network coverage and mobile broadband speeds of more modern 4G and 5G networks, as well as future 6G services.”
Is this just a random claim or is there any evidence that this is actually happening? An already poor mobile landscape in the UK got worse in the last 1-2 years since the 3G switch off started. Connectivity is comically bad in most places around here (south east of England).
“The switch-off will also reduce the operators’ costs and power consumption.”
Aaaand there it is. The real reason for the switch-off.
I can give you what I’ve observed personally.
Vodafone: Seems to refarmed 3G spectrum to 2G 900… what was the point of that, please tell me
Three: 4G 2100 in a lot of places have expanded to a 15MHz block instead of a 10MHz block, but it requires an engineer visit from what I did hear
EE: 4G 2100 has been expanded to a 20MHz block in a lot of places around here in late 2024, I don’t think this requires an engineer visit
Hopefully O2 isn’t stupid enough to refarm it as 2G like Vodafone did, given that nobody will be able to use it anyways except in emergencies by the sounds of it.
Its dependent on who is making the claim. EE for example ahead of their switch-off allocated some spectrum towards 4/5G. They did not allocate the rest (yet).
If you think it’s all about saving money and efficiency you should find it quite believable they’re going to use the freed up spectrum for other things. They’re paying for it, it’d be a waste to leave it idle.
The energy and cost saving is obvious. They can shut down old, inefficient hardware at mast sites and across the network. They don’t need to power it or pay for support for it.
Here we go yet again, the network that still happily drops to 2G at least three times on a train journey has significant inbound roaming traffic.
O2 needs to get their act together. They’re doing great things with significant improvements to their network to hopefully relieve capacity issues, heck I spotted another n28 site in my local area today (although I shouldn’t be surprised that it has n28) and I’ve seen n28 a few times in Bristol yesterday.
I’m hoping the Cornerstone joining EE sites thing will sort things out, but I’ve seen virtually zero improvement here so far and I’ve started to realise that O2 isn’t even on some Vodafone sites (or seemingly is on 2G/3G to me instead of 4G). O2 can’t even upgrade old 2G sites that come under O2 host since Vodafone never decided to join them, yet EE has a 4G setup on them.
As long as O2 gives regional updates of the switch off, of 3G in the localised areas effected there should be minimal distruption to consumers.
I assume as they are one of the last to switch off 3G they are getting all those who are roaming with non-4G phones.
Friday pm I checked 02.co.uk coverage, in CR2 area, good for 2G, 3G, 4G and ish for 5G, and what a surprise no mention of any networks closing down. Additionally I checked on Tesco site and again not a dicky bird!
Seen it quite a few times with various “roaming” sims on various networks where they’ll initially end up on 3G on first connection even if it’s 5G enabled, perhaps o2 need to fix the issue with their partner/customer telcos.
One of the issues is that many IoT devices which have M2M SIM cards are ‘roaming’ SIM cards which mean they connect to whichever UK network has the strongest/available signal. As the other networks sunset their legacy networks, these SIM cards revert to the last network standing.
Yet another way of turning the wick down on the economy, co-incidentally and inadvertently, of course.
The powers that be are so inventive and the regulator so ineffective when it comes to things like this.
Repeating the phrase being bandied about on other forums (On other medical matters). . . I am a conspiracy theorists and my personal pronouns are I/told/you so.