MNO DECOMMISSIONING DIRECTORY

These days many mobile operators are considering the merits of phasing out / decommissioning / sunsetting their 2G or 3G networks and in some cases the phasing out of both 2G and 3G together. As the demand for spectrum to support 4G and 5G services grows, the phasing out of 2G or 3G can help ensure that the most efficient technology is used to deliver services and the cost base of a mobile network business is optimised.

Clearly how voice and M2M / IoT services are supported following a decommissioning is of vital importance to roaming partners of that operator.When a mobile operator closes their 2G and 3G networks they would need to have a defined plan of how their customers or devices would have service continuity when roaming.

Following ROCCO’s research on VoLTE Vision in 2016 and 2018 and 5G Roaming in 2019, we have been following the trends in VoLTE and 5G Roaming deployment across the global mobile operator community. While this provides useful information, to get the whole picture we need also to look at the decommissioning plans too and see what impacts might arise from the closing of 2G and 3G networks.

ROCCO is aware that other lists are being produced on 2G and 3G decommissioning but these do not provide the complete story. Working with Mobile operators frustrated with lack of insights from their roaming partners, we designed a survey. The survey will remain open and continue to receive responses from mobile operators all year round. We will reproduce this report every three months and we will we continue to request MNOs to provide and update their data.

ROCCO is also open to receive any feedback from mobile operators regarding the international experiences on network shutdown and we invite any mobile operator to share their experiences with us so we can further assist mobile operators with advice and strategic insights.

The final pages of this report show a table of specific data from mobile operators. Please encourage your roaming partners to help us grow the data in this report. MNO’s can update or add their data to the report by going to the survey.

This report is available on request for free by contacting us at HQ@ROCCO.GROUP 

Operators who took part in the report will shortly receive the report.

This report will next be revised and published in January 2020.