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Articles for Category Tag - 3G

O2 Expand UK 3G Mobile Switch Off to Norwich, Telford, Guildford and Torquay

22nd April, 2025 (1 Comment)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today begun to notify customers about the next batch of four UK locations to go through their 3G mobile (broadband) switch-off programme, which recently started with a pilot in Durham (here). Norwich, Telford and Guildford will be the next areas to have 3G withdrawn on 16th July, with Torquay to follow on 4th August 2025.

O2 UK See Significant Inbound 2G and 3G Roaming Traffic as Switch-Off Looms

10th April, 2025 (19 Comments)

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.

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Mobile Operator Spusu UK Enables VoLTE Calling for Google Pixel

7th April, 2025 (9 Comments)

SIM-Only UK mobile provider spusu, which holds a virtual operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s national 4G and 5G network, has today confirmed that they’ve finally resolved calling problems (here) on Google’s popular Pixel Smartphones by enabling Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) calling support.

O2 Reminds Durham Over Start of UK 3G Mobile Switch Off in April 2025

19th March, 2025 (5 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today issued a reminder about how they intend to start switching off their old 3G mobile (broadband) services across the United Kingdom from next month, which is a process that will start in the city (NOT county) of Durham and should complete nationally by the end of 2025.

Three UK Provide Brief Progress Update on 3G Mobile Switch Off

17th January, 2025 (18 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK, which was previously aiming to complete the process of switching off their old 3G (mobile broadband) network by the end of 2024 (here), has told ISPreview today that the “vast majority” of their 3G sites were switched off in September 2024. But a “small number” of sites are still live to avoid customers losing service.

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O2 to Start UK 3G Mobile Switch Off in City of Durham in April 2025

13th January, 2025 (7 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning revealed that they’ll begin the withdrawal of their older 3G mobile (broadband) services across the United Kingdom – the last major operator to do so – in April 2025, which will start with the city of Durham in England (not to be confused with County Durham).

Survey Claims 4.3 Million UK People May Lose O2 Data Access After 3G Switch Off UPDATE

9th January, 2025 (33 Comments)

A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch.com and conducted on 7th Jan 2025, has claimed that more than 4.3 million Brits could potentially be left without access to mobile broadband if they don’t upgrade their device before O2 switches-off their 3G service (inc. MVNO’s Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile etc.).

Opensignal Reveal Impact of 3G Shut Down by EE, Three UK and Vodafone

12th December, 2024 (20 Comments)

Internet benchmarking firm Opensignal has used their crowdsource data, which is collected via users of their benchmarking apps and services, to reveal a bit more information about how the recent 3G mobile switch-off on EE (BT), Three UK (ongoing) and Vodafone has impacted the availability of their remaining 2G, 4G and 5G based mobile / broadband services.

EE UK Boosts 4G and 5G Mobile by Refarming More 3G Spectrum

28th November, 2024 (13 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve “started the work” to repurpose more of their old 3G radio spectrum for use by modern 4G and 5G based mobile networks, which is said to already be delivering “performance improvements” (e.g. faster mobile broadband speeds) for customers in “thousands of postcodes” across the UK.

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Multiboost Gain Ofcom UK Approval for Indoor Mobile Signal Boosters

21st November, 2024 (4 Comments)

Consumers may like to know that Ofcom’s earlier move to soften their requirements for licence exempt indoor or in-vehicle “mobile phone repeaters” (here) is starting to bear fruit. Multiboost has just announced that their ‘PRO’ kit is now fully compliant with the regulator’s standards, which means more choice for homes and businesses.

Google Pixel Owners Suffer UK Mobile Calling Problems on Spusu

11th November, 2024 (16 Comments)

Some customers of SIM-Only mobile operator spusu, specifically those that own various particular models of Google’s popular Pixel Smartphones, have been complaining that they often struggle to make or receive calls on the operator’s network when connected via 4G (VoLTE). But efforts are underway to resolve the problem.

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nPerf Finds Top EU Countries Beat UK for Mobile Broadband Speeds

31st October, 2024 (8 Comments)

Internet benchmarking firm nPerf has today released the results of a new study into mobile broadband (3G, 4G and 5G) performance across several EU countries, which analysed 61,696 internet speed tests via their app (crowdsourced) to reveal that the average UK download is 80Mbps – this makes the country slower than Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland, France and Portugal.

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Ookla Claim Quarter of UK Smartphone Users Suffer Network Outage at Least Once a Month

30th October, 2024 (2 Comments)

A new survey of over 1,000 UK smartphone users by Omdia, which was commissioned by network testing firm Ookla (i.e. Speedtest.net, Downdetector.co.uk), has revealed some of the biggest frustrations that UK Smartphone users have with their devices, with spam calls and messages, slow-loading web pages, and network outages as the top pain points.

Study Finds Three UK’s 3G Switch-Off Boosted Speeds, But Hurt Coverage

30th October, 2024 (15 Comments)

Mobile network analyst firm Streetwave has used data gathered from across Northumberland (England) and Ceredigion (Wales) to examine the recent switch-off of 3G mobile services in those areas by Three UK, which resulted in median (average) mobile broadband download speeds rising by 22%, but “Essential Coverage” declined by 8%.

Ofcom Survey Finds Growth in Unlimited UK Mobile Data Tariffs

22nd October, 2024 (9 Comments)

Ofcom has published the results from a new survey that is intended to help monitor how well the UK mobile market is functioning and whether it continues to deliver good outcomes. For example, the work reveals that unlimited data (broadband) tariffs accounted for 13% of mobile plans in 2023 (up from 5% in 2019), but plans with smaller allowances are now less common.

O2 UK to Withdraw Inbound 2G and 3G Roaming on 1st October 2025

23rd September, 2024 (13 Comments)

The business division of mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today confirmed that, as part of their plan to switch-off 2G and 3G services across the United Kingdom, they’ll also be withdrawing inbound roaming services on both of those older mobile networks from 1st October 2025.

Ofcom Study Benchmarks Speeds of UK 4G and 5G Mobile Networks

6th September, 2024 (1 Comment)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published their 2024 Mobile Matters report, which uses Opensignal’s crowdsourced data (collected between October 2023 and March 2024) to benchmark the performance of UK mobile broadband networks by both technology (2G to 5G), nation and operator choice – including Three UK, O2, Vodafone and EE.