Switzerland to bury GSM mobile communications standard as of 2023

The GSM mobile communications standard is now more than 30 years old. In our neighboring country, Switzerland, GSM will finally be obsolete from 2023. At the beginning of January, the last mobile provider will also switch off the 2G network.

GSM standard to be switched off in Switzerland from 2023

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM for short) had already replaced analog networks in mobile communications in 1990. In 2006, the mobile communications standard boomed before being gradually replaced by the 3G UMTS network.

In Switzerland, the last mobile provider will also take the 2G standard off the network from January 3, 2023. Network operator Sunrise, which is Switzerland’s second-largest provider, has now announced this in a press release. Swisscom and Salt Mobile went off the network earlier.

“We have deliberately made the switch to a modern mobile generation more flexible for the benefit of our customers,” says André Kause, CEO of Sunrise. 2G connections are practically no longer needed, which is why the decision was made to switch off the GSM standard from the beginning of 2023.

Sunrise has informed the few customers who are still using the 2G standard by letter about the switch-off and wants to support them in switching to new solutions with a modern mobile communications standard such as 4G and 5G.

The 3G standard is to go at Sunrise “in the next 3 to 4 years” also to the collar, it is said further. From then on, it wants to focus only on its 4G and 5G networks. Switzerland’s largest network operator, Swisscom, shut down its GSM network as early as April 2021.

UMTS is also facing the end

In Austria, Magenta Telekom announced that it would shut down its UMTS network on January 01, 2024, according to already announced in April.

“Customers who use a 3G-capable terminal that does not support 4G/LTE or 5G will be able to use the 2G network exclusively after the 3G switch-off,” the Austria-based provider said. However, the 2G GSM network is to be retained for sending text-only messages. Network operator A1, on the other hand, will maintain its 3G network until the end of 2024.

In this country, Gigaset just announced a new, downright “old-school” 4G-GSM flip phone with the GL7, while network operators continue to work on expanding the 5G network. Most recently, for example, O2 Telefónica achieved a breakthrough by enabling 5G reception on almost the entire route of the Munich subway network.