NTT DoCoMo says farewell to 2G network

hmm wondering iff there testing of thir super Gnetwork tech was sucessefull your talking atleast 5g each user would be able to pull 300mbps on a cell

Not to fond of 3G, kills batt life way too fast

@E21P: Same argument can be made for any technology. I personally believe the benefits (high speed data, better call quality, simultaneous data/voice, etc) outweigh the argument against shorter battery life. Technology always improves with regards to batter and power consumptions, but so does the demand for more functionality out of already incredibly small devices.

I am personally glad, although not surprised, someone is finally phasing out 2G tech. I think ATT is doing the same, but without an official announcement.

3G sucks. Seriously. UMTS is a massive energy hog. Battery life is abysmal and there are plenty of people who would see absolutely no benefit to 3G. Not everybody walks around surfing the web on their phones. Its not until I got a couple of 3G Handsets that I realized I rather, and do, use my 2G EDGE Handsets over them. GSM at this point is greater than UMTS. Let them make some non buggy energy efficient UMTS chipsets then we can talk. BTW this site is staffed by such sycophantic no-nothings its not even funny. Today’s “well known fact” which is actually just what everybody thinks and blog writers state as fact, is that 3G isn’t wide spread in America. I know all the tech blog morons believe this to be true, but aren’t you as a writer supposed to know the facts. Tell me what percentage of Verizon (#1 US provide) and Sprint are EV-DO. Because I suspect over 90% if not higher by now. Since EV-DO is a 3G tech and the CDMA American providers virtually sell all 3G Handsets now, isn’t your assertion a bit WRONG? Jeez I could write better drivel than this.

“…maybe Big Blue should just step it up and dump 2G all together. Meanwhile, T-Mobile has yet to penetrate most markets with its own 3G network.”

ATT’s 3G coverage isn’t THAT much better than T-Mobile’s… Both GSM carriers have a lot of ground to catch up when compared to their CDMA counterparts as well.

Heck, where I live, I can get mobile TV from Verizon, but in comparison, I’d be lucky if I would be able to pick up an EDGE signal with a decent speed with ATT. It’s awful.

And I HAVE ATT.

@niftydl,

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super glad for 3G

NTT uses unique 2G technology, it may be better to get rid of it ASAP for LTE
on the other side, GSM will stay around for a long time due to extreme popularity
GSM uses less power
UMTS/HSPA has better internet experience, especially for laptop, and you can surf and talk altogether (but internet is a lot slower when talking)

this is aimed at the idiot who bashed BGR. GSM is a technology. AT&T’s 2g network is EDGE. There 3G network is UMTS/HSPDA. And for the person who reference watching Mobile TV on their phone. Mobile TV has nothing to do with the providers network. Technically I could watch Mobile TV on any network as long as Qualcom is broadcasting a signal. And there are many benefits to using 3G that have nothing to do with Voice and Data at the same time. The most important feature of 3G is that it increase call quality but i sure you already knew that.

OK, again the writing in this is misleading and typical forum troll material.

Is the US behind Japan in cell phone technology? Yes.

What is one of the most critical variables to the cost:benefit of cell phone infrastructure? Population density.

What’s the population density of Japan compared to the US?

Japan = 127M people over 377K sq KM = .33M per sq KM
US = 303M people over 9826 sq KM = .03M per sq KM (excl Alaska and Hawaii)

Yup, that’s right, Japan has 10 TIMES the population density making deployment of 3G far more economically viable than it is for the US. Deal with it and stop writing as if someone is holding the US back.

This uneducated writing simply astonishes me.

Stop shitting on TMobile around here.

lol all this over some Japanese wireless carrier most of us will never use.

By the way, NTT DoCoMo has a new logo and has had it for several months- unfortunately it’s kind of boring compared to this old one.

WTF?

3G sucks?

I think not.

This is the breakdown… AT&T has 3G… and it sucks, Tmobile, Sprint and Verizon now has it… Verizon is looking at LTE and 4G … 3G isnt thay big of a deal. Im loving the 1xEV from Verizon and to me its kinda faster than 3G… Verizon will be a At&T 3G but with 4G and it will be better.. Lets all play the waiting Game… Patience pays off…

another note… This is why we need WIFI !!!!!!!!

@ Marc: You have to understand that regardless of the size of any US Carrier Wireless 3G Network, you can’t just turn off the 2G and expect everyone to be on the same page.

So far, only VZW has greater majority of 3G phone users on its network but even they don’t have 100% of their users using capable handsets.

Despite ATT’s attempt to expand 3G last year, less than 40% of their sub base have 3G capable phones so turning off 3G would be a PR nightmare no matter how well their low level retail sales clerks on these boards try to spin it.

Just so you know, T-Mobile currently covers 100 million POPS with their 3G network and should have over 208 million POPS covered later this year. Considering that’s all native network and not roaming partners, it’s not really much worse than what ATT offers. To be honest, they both lag way behind VZW or Sprint in this dept.

VZW and Sprint couldn’t kill 2G, even if they had 100% of their users on 3G handsets… EV-DO is, as the acronym suggests, data only, the phone has to switch to the 2G network to make calls. (EV-DO Rev A can theoretically handle VOIP, but I don’t think any phones that are out there can use it out of the box)

@WTFBGR: FALSE!
It’s simply much too naive to compare raw surface area to population. If you did that, Canada wouldn’t even be populated. You have to look at the major cities, because that’s where people live and that’s how you efficiently deploy anyways:
Tokyo: 12.7 million people with people density of 14151/Km2
New York: 8.2 million people with density of 10482/Km2
Los Angeles: 3.8 million with density of 2980/Km2.

NYC and LA are dense enough that there is no justification for not building out 3G the same as Japan.

New York City has pretty good 3G coverage from all the major carriers, or so I thought.

Well, there is this little problem with ditching 2G that I see around me pretty much every day. This problem is called Blackberry – as in – everybody seem to have one. All of them are 2G devices (since there is only one AT&T 3G-compatible Blackberry) and replacing all of them, while surely benefiting AT&T’s bottom line, will be a little too harsh on IT departments’ budgets.

Just my 2 cents.