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Wireless Infrastructure


ENTERPRISES NEED TO INVOKE PLAN B AS 3G SUNSET LOOMS

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The major U.S. carriers all have 3G sunset plans next year. Businesses need to
start 3G device replacements now to avoid telemetric data disruptions.
Salvatore Salamone
August 27, 2021


SUNSET-1651426_640.JPG

(Source: Pixabay)

Many utilities, healthcare providers, industrial manufacturers, fleet
management, supply chain, logistics companies, and more will soon need to
replace 3G devices they’ve relied on for years as part of their operations.
The reason: The major U.S. carriers all have 3G sunset plans next year.

In some cases, 3G towers will be replaced with 5G equipment to meet the booming
demand for the newer service. In other cases, 3G spectrum will be used for 4G
data services. Unfortunately, older 3G devices will not work with the newer
services.

Current 3G sunset schedules for the major carriers are Dec. 31, 2021, for
Verizon, February 2022 for AT&T, and various dates for T-Mobile as its network
is a blend of the older Sprint network and T-Mobile’s own network.



However, companies should plan for disruptions even sooner. 3G service cutoff
dates will likely vary throughout the country, with some areas losing service
much earlier. "Depending on the region, existing 3G infrastructure isn’t
guaranteed to last until the sunset date, as regular maintenance may be dropped
in favor of implementing hotly demanded 4G and 5G infrastructure instead,”
according to Andrew Rossington, Chief Product Officer at fleet management
solutions company Teletrac Navman.

Far-reaching impact

Equipment that will no longer work when 3G services are no longer available
includes a variety of remote health monitoring, IoT, and telematics devices, as
well as GPS trackers. Application areas that will need alternatives include
security systems, in-vehicle telematics and tracking systems, digital water
meters, medical tracking devices, asset monitoring, and many industrial
applications that use 3G instead of Wi-Fi to collect equipment telemetry and
status data.

There also are many critical applications. For instance, many utilities have
used 3G sensors to monitor transformers and other equipment in remote
substations. They used 3G because the site was not served by any other
communications service, or a landline to transmit the data was simply too
expensive. And many older mobile personal emergency response system (mPERS)
devices used by live-at-home seniors communicate over 3G.

Collectively, more than 80 million 3G devices are operating on North American
networks alone. Replacing them will be quite expensive. For example, one
industry estimate pegged mPERS device replacement costs at a minimum of $150 per
device. Entire transportation, logistics, and supply chain fleets will need to
upgrade any 3G trackers and telemetric units. Fortunately, most new equipment in
every field likely included more modern devices that support 4G or 5G.

Perhaps the biggest financial impact is what happens if data from a critical
system suddenly and unexpectedly goes dark. Many 3G telemetric devices are
deployed on critical equipment in remote or hostile locations. That might
include electric grid transmission or generation gear in hard-to-reach
geographic locations or equipment in a harsh industrial environment. In such
cases, the data transmitted via 3G provide the eyes and ears that give companies
insights into the state of the equipment since it cannot routinely be checked by
an on-site human operator. If that data is cut off with a 3G sunset, unplanned
outages and downtime can lead to major disruptions. The cost of emergency
repairs in any situation is always high. If emergency repairs must be made on
equipment in remote and harsh environments, the costs can be even higher.  

What’s next?

The best advice is to keep up to date on the situation. Get 3G sunset details
for your locations from your carriers. Also, do extensive device assessments
now. Determine which applications and what systems currently use 3G devices that
will not work on 4G and 5G networks. And finally, start updating that equipment
and those systems so that they will work once 3G service is gone in your
company’s geographic locations.


TAGS:

5G
5G services
broadband wireless
Commentary
Wireless Infrastructure
Networking

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