Swisscom has deactivated its GSM 2G network in Switzerland so that it can dedicate its resources and reuse spectrum to support its 4G and 5G services. The country's largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers launched 2G in 1993, offering call and text messaging services. Since then, the service has been upgraded to support mobile Internet access via GPRS and EDGE, and multimedia messaging (MMS). However, the launch of 3G in late 2004, along with the arrival of the first smartphones, exposed the limits of 2G and reduced it to a backup role.
Switzerland 2G
The expansion of the 3G network and the subsequent launches of 4G and 5G mean that the entire country now has access to more advanced network technology, allowing Swisscom to go offline. Since 2015, Swisscom has been working to migrate the few remaining customers who still rely on 2G to a more modern device, and at the end of last year, the outdated technology only accounted for 0.03% of all mobile traffic on the network. In addition to freeing up spectrum, Swisscom will be freed from additional operating costs and maintenance costs. Rival operators Sunrise and Salt have also announced plans to "kill 2G" in the coming years. The approach in Switzerland differs from other countries where 2G is expected to outlast 3G due to its superior coverage and energy efficiency, qualities that are important for mass IoT deployments. Swisscom expects its Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) network to be able to support massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments that rely on wide coverage and low power consumption more efficiently than 2G. It also offers LTE-M for critical IoT deployments, and both standards are an integral part of 5G. However, in the UK, a 2G shutdown may not take place until the 2030s, as applications such as the government's smart meter project and the EU's eCall system that connects vehicles to public services emergencies in the event of an airbag deployment depend on technology.