Upcoming cellular issues for vehicles

Thanks for posting this CraigW. It's a good "heads up" for our members to check into.

I guess those Lexus and Caddy owners might have to buy a DriveSmart!

My Kia Optima has CarPlay/Android Auto and relies on a smart phone for connectivity to Kia's UVO services. So I think it should be OK as long as my phone is 4G/5G.

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43187/how-the-3g-shutdown-in-2...

Scroll down for the list of vehicles

I also noted from the article that the ending of 3G depends on the carrier; Verizon beilg the last at 12/31/2022. I further note that I should have bought a Ferrari or McLaren.

Many areas of the county still use 3G and are grateful to have it. This includes the rural northern part of the county I live in. Due to the relatively few customers in this area, there are no plans to upgrade.

This raises the question as to whether or not newer 4 and 5G equipped vehicles (and smartphones) will still be able to use the 3G service in rural areas.

I suspect, but I'm not positive, that these new 4 and 5G systems are backward compatible. If not, many service area coverage maps will have large "dark" spots in these rural areas.

I do know the FCC expects to reclaim and reallocate these old 3G frequencies at some point.

Just because your cellphone vendor tells you that you have a problem doesn't mean that it is true. Our virtual carrier is Consumer Cellular (CC) and our real carrier is ATT. Around a year ago CC notified us that one of our phones is subject to the upcoming 3G end-of-life. We've also nad a note in each of our bills since then. I called CC and explained that they were wrong. They went so far as to check the IMEI of the "offending" phone and agreed that it was indeed a 4G phone. They updated their records and the operator could not eliminate the 3G flag. This was also before CC got bought out by vulture capitalists.

Thanks. Yes. that's the article I read a couple days ago. I was worried about my Subaru Crosstrek since the article said the 2019 would be affected but in checking a Subaru site, I now believe that 2019 in the above article is a typo and it should be 2018 like the other Subarus.

I now believe that my 2019's SOS and other functions will not be affected.

I've been thinking the same. My smartphone is 4G using ATT's towers but I connect to ATT as a Tracfone customer with a Tracfone SIM and an unlocked Galaxy S10. Since Tracfone doesn't offer Galaxy S10s, they may be making the same error that your Consumer Cellular did with your phone. Is it possible that if I got a newer Tracfone SIM card, my VoLTE toggle would appear?

At first, I thought I might need to get a new phone that offers VoLTE but I'm going to wait to see if my 4G phone keeps working. As long as I use the phone in areas with 4G, maybe I'll be OK.

It is odd though. Tracfone says I need VoLTE to be safe when the 3G towers are gone and my used Samsung Galaxy S10 is supposed to have a VoLTE toggle but my Android 11 with the S10's latest monthly updates still doesn't show a toggle where it should be. Maybe an upcoming software update from Android or Samsung will make it appear. I'm pretty sure that my S10 with Android 11 will be offered the Android 12 upgrade but it hasn't arrived yet.

I could be very wrong. I'm not at all comfortable with all the cellular systems and what's what.

Thanks for that. I have a Verizon flip-phone I've kept alive for years at $100/year on a low-end prepay plan. Verizon has sent me multiple warnings of the end both of service to my phone and availability of my plan. They indeed changed my plan late last summer, but the new version suits my purpose, and I have carryover funds in my account that should make it out to December 2022 if indeed they support the phone that long.

As I got an iPhone on T-Mobile in September, the flip phone is very much a vestigial backup, primarily useful for receiving two-factor authentication messages from places I've failed to tell about my new phone number.

My wife’s CPAP machine communicates via Telus CDMA 3g and that will effect her tracking which is sent to her Dr. Yup, 3g is still being used.

I expect the same to happen in some years when 4g is sunset as well. I suspect it will be sooner than later. Likely less than 10 yrs from now.

Actually, shutting down 4G might be a bit difficult. To accomplish it we would need a whole new infrastructure. Your cell phone provider, for example, will need to install a lot of new equipment for this new technology because 5G uses a totally different wavelength than the 4G standard your phone currently uses. The 5G standard uses millimeter waves, which are a lot shorter than the wavelengths 4G uses. The shorter wavelength means 5G can carry a lot of data much faster than 4G, but it also means a much shorter range. 4G wavelengths have a range of about 10 miles. 5G wavelengths have a range of about 1,000 feet, not even 2% of 4G's range. To ensure a reliable 5G signal, there needs to be a lot of 5G cell towers and antennas everywhere. We're talking on every lamppost, traffic light, etc. because even trees can block 5G signals.

It us actually a little more complicated than that:

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

"... 5G can be implemented in low-band, mid-band or high-band millimeter-wave 24 GHz up to 54 GHz. Low-band 5G uses a similar frequency range to 4G cellphones, 600–900 MHz, giving download speeds a little higher than 4G: 30–250 megabits per second (Mbit/s).[4] Low-band cell towers have a range and coverage area similar to 4G towers. Mid-band 5G uses microwaves of 2.3–4.7 GHz, allowing speeds of 100–900 Mbit/s, with each cell tower providing service up to several kilometers in radius. This level of service is the most widely deployed, and was deployed in many metropolitan areas in 2020. Some regions are not implementing the low band, making Mid-band the minimum service level. High-band 5G uses frequencies of 24–47 GHz, near the bottom of the millimeter wave band, although higher frequencies may be used in the future. It often achieves download speeds in the gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) range, comparable to cable internet. However, millimeter waves (mmWave or mmW) have a more limited range, requiring many small cells.[5] They can be impeded or blocked by materials in walls or windows.[6] Due to their higher cost, plans are to deploy these cells only in dense urban environments and areas where crowds of people congregate such as sports stadiums and convention centers. The above speeds are those achieved in actual tests in 2020, and speeds are expected to increase during rollout.[4] The spectrum ranging from 24.25–29.5 GHz has been the most licensed and deployed 5G mmWave spectrum range in the world. ..."

It's supposed to be all part of his trillion $$ infrastructure bill.