[michalhosna]

> The Nokia 5110 is a 2G telephone, meaning it uses the original 2G mobile network to communicate. This network has long been decommissioned in most western countries, including Australia.

In Europe, 3G is shutting down, but 2G as a fallback seems to be staying for years to come.

> However, 2G networks were still available as of 2023 in most parts of the world, while notably excluding the majority of carriers in North America, East Asia, and Australasia.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G

AFAIK, in the US, T-Mobile still has a 2G network.

[lotsofpulp]

It is being deprecated now. Comparison map:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/1eppo3p/tmobile...

https://imgur.com/a/Zg6XYch

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network-e...

>Capacity and coverage of T-Mobile's 2G (GSM) network is expected to change starting as early as September 1, 2024.

[joecool1029]

> AFAIK, in the US, T-Mobile still has a 2G network.

They do but most won't be able to use a phone this old on it. Reason being the SIM application was taken out of the issued sim cards years ago for T-Mobile (something like 6 years or so at this point). Newer 3G-era cellphones use the USIM application and can fall back to the 2G network.

So the only way to still use a device that's pre-3G (circa-2007 or so) on the 2G network is to have a SIM that's been activated the whole time. T-Mobile will not activate expired SIM cards that still contain the application.

Source: I have used back to the Sony Ericsson t68i this past summer on T-Mobile. If you have an ancient SIM and want to browse WAP 1.x as well you can use this site for the gateway: https://nbpfan.bs0dd.net/index.php?lang=eng&page=wap%2Fmain

EDIT: Funny thing about 3G-era phone support, you can use a euicc (removable ESIM) on a phone from 2007 (I used Sony Ericsson K850i) and it will work just fine with an activated esim to access 2G.

[memsom]

I am forever horrified when my 5G phone, which at my house already only gets 4G at best (the politics of cell towers in Southern England is just a sad sad story) drops now to 2G!!! Dropping a modern smartphone to 2G is like basically saying "no network". The only things I use it for are unusable. I rarely make calls. I rarely send SMS. Vodafone dropped 3G, O2 will drop it early next year and the others some time soonish too. Using a smart phone in a rural area now kind of feels like going back to 2007 if I am going to be honest.

[cardanome]

2G is still strong in Germany as some industrial applications rely on it. It is not going to be deprecated any time soon. Maybe once they run out of spare parts.

Germany's mobile network is worse than most third world countries. Working on a train? No internet for you! Going a few meters outside a settlement? Might not even be able to do calls.

[morsch]

Such an exaggeration. >92% of the area is served with 5G. Calls are available in 98%-99% of the area (though sometimes just from one of the operators). Some trains were built in a way that blocks reception, though those have had repeaters or wifi for a while. I know plenty of people who work from the train every day.

Sources:

https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilung...

https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilung...

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrain-Repeater

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Mobile-communications-for-rail-...

[morsch]

I was just remembering this post while riding a train through a rural part of Germany: fast.com reports 50 Mbit/s, as fast as my plan permits.

[superkuh]

Correct. I still use my Nokia 6030 2G phone with T-Mobile in Minnesota/Wisconsin. And it's battery still lasts a week and I can't even feel it in my pocket it's so small. Impossible to destroy too; I've used roughly it since ~2008.