Verizon Wireless Will Shut Down 2G and 3G Networks by 2021

A Verizon Wireless VP announced yesterday that her company plans to disconnect its 2G and 3G networks by 2021. The carrier gave the warning early, giving its customers time to move from those networks on to greener pastures, namely its faster LTE network.

Aparna Khurjekar, Verizon's vice president of global strategy for M2M said, "We are giving a decade worth of pre-warning."

UPDATE

Verizon has apparently stepped back a bit from Khurjekar's hard-and-fast deadline. A company spokesperson to Brighthand this afternoon:

The Verizon Wireless 2G and 3G networks will be available into the foreseeable future. Recently published dates are guidelines that we are giving customers who have to plan, fund, and transition large enterprise projects to the faster speed networks. The Verizon Wireless 2G and 3G networks will be available as long as necessary to support customers who may have mission critical projects on those networks. 

Abandoning older, slower connections in favor of new faster emerging networks is a common trend in the wireless network industry. AT&T is in the process of shutting down its 2G network by 2017, for example.

Most would agree this will hardly be a loss -- by 2021, even 3G networks will seem painfully slow, as super-fast 5G and possibly even 6G networks will likely be in place by then.

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