Verizon to Shut Down 3G network on Dec. 31, 2022, Other Networks Plan to Do So As Well

    As 99% of  Verizon’s customers have moved to 4G and 5G networks, the company announced today that the days of 3G are numbered.

   "We will turn off the last of the 3G CDMA network on Dec. 31, 2022, months after our competitors have shut off their networks completely," says Mike Haberman, Verizon's vice president of network engineering.

    3G was first introduced in 2002, and 4G was first introduced 2009, but it was not until 2016 that Verizon announced its eventual plans to close its 3G network in 2019, when 5G was rolled out.

   As more and more of Verizon’s customers chose the newer networks for their enhanced features and greater network speeds, the communications giant continued to offer 3G, while pushing back the shutdown date of its 3G network to the end of 2020. In January, however, Verizon revealed that it would keep the 20-year-old network going “for now.”

  But Haberman now says that the Dec. 31, 2022, is a date "will not be extended again." 

   The company is "communicating this again now in order to provide customers plenty of time to complete their migration [to 4G or 5G]," Haberman said.

   AT&T, the country’s largest communications company, previously announced that its 3G network will remain online until February 2022, and T-Mobile said in January that it would shutter its 3G network "over the next several years."