[supermax]

As the demand grows for 5G and plans are well afoot for 6G, tele-operators world-wide are actively planning to phase out support to 2g and 3g so they can use the freed up bands for their 4g and beyond offerings. While countries like the UK have made plans to do a complete transition by the year 2033, private operators even within the UK have set themselves stiffer deadlines. Network giant 3 in the UK, has decided to phase out 3g by end of 2024. In Sweden, all network operators bar Telia have decided to pull the plug sometime in 2025, for their 2g/3g networks.

How does this affect car users, you wonder? Because your car has a SIM card which is used for emergency SOS connectivity, remote-access features and so-on, and car makers might not be able to offer an upgrade to the SIM card as far too many things are hardcoded to work with the SIM that's installed at the factory, so even if an upgrade possibility exists, it is not going to be an inexpensive affair. The problem is exacerbated in countries which have a hard requirement for cars to have a functioning SOS-connectivity system that is built-in. This basically means that if the cars' connectivity solution is not upgraded to 4g or 5g, it could get an outright ban on the roads of various countries in the EU.
There are articles written by car owners who are now desperately trying to compile information to ensure that their cars are not going to get reduced to junk status in the not-too-distant future, as a result of this decision. Information from the car makers themselves seem to be less easily available.

Here are some links which describe the issue, the last two are in Swedish.

https://www.three.co.uk/support/netw...-switch-off-3g

https://carup.se/lista-bilar-som-sna...s-i-3g-kaoset/

https://www.telia.se/privat/om/5g/nu...g-och-2g-naten

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[neofromcapone]

I don't think cars in India will face this issue. IIRC our cars came with "Internet Inside' post 4G.

And as far as EU goes, this adversity will be marketed as an opportunity to upgrade your car or the at least upgrade in-car entertainment with new shiny high speed 6G connection.

[Jeroen]

The mandatory recall came into force in March 2018. Only on newly approved cars. So it does not apply on models that were upgrades from a previous model. So a lot of post 2018 cars still don't require this feature.

4G roll outs started in 2010-12 in most EU countries. By 2018 there was if I recall correctly a 80% penetration as average. A few countries lagged behind.

So it is very odd to say the least, that the EU mandated 2 and 3G connectivity for this service. I believe new regulations are being prepared to switch to an IP based technology in 2026.

The question remains on how big the problem really is in terms of practicality.

Although the recall is mandatory I don't think it is part of any annual MOT type of periodic testing. Of course these days, just about every motorist has a mobile phone on him/her. Of course the eCall system would call automatically in case of a crash.

But the fact remains that as soon as there is any major crashes the emergency call centres get flooded with calls from other motorist and bystanders. Police ask you not to call the emergency number unless you have seen the accident happen in order to avoid clogging up the emergency number and operators.

Of course, if you drive of the road into a tree on a rural road with nobody around that might be a bit different. But in many EU countries you might find yourself without network coverage too.

Whether you (or your car) uses recall or your mobile phone to call 112 (emergency services) it will automatically pick the best available network, irrespective of who your network provider is. So if there is a network, you can call 112 even if you are not subscribed to that particular network.

With the average age of cars in the EU trending towards 12 years, there are likely to be quite a number of cars affected. But I doubt anybody will be required to scrap their cars or their cars will be declared unfit to be on the road.

Mandating the network operators to keep their 3G networks up and running isn't going to happen either.

Because the service was to be provided free of charge to the public the Network providers were never interested. In fact, a regular 3G based device does ping the network regularly. So the network operators do need to add additional capacity. So they came up with what is called a “dormant” SIM.

So the recall device is never connected to the Network, can't be tracked either until an emergency call is made. No data other than the minimum subscriber data necessary to connect the call and location data is send.

Jeroen

[supermax]

Originally Posted by neofromcapone

I don't think cars in India will face this issue. IIRC our cars came with "Internet Inside' post 4G.

And as far as EU goes, this adversity will be marketed as an opportunity to upgrade your car or the at least upgrade in-car entertainment with new shiny high speed 6G connection.

Yup, and even if things like the SOS button don't work, nobody will care in India!

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Although the recall is mandatory I don't think it is part of any annual MOT type of periodic testing.


Of course, if you drive of the road into a tree on a rural road with nobody around that might be a bit different. But in many EU countries you might find yourself without network coverage too.

Whether you (or your car) uses recall or your mobile phone to call 112 (emergency services) it will automatically pick the best available network, irrespective of who your network provider is. So if there is a network, you can call 112 even if you are not subscribed to that particular network.

With the average age of cars in the EU trending towards 12 years, there are likely to be quite a number of cars affected. But I doubt anybody will be required to scrap their cars or their cars will be declared unfit to be on the road.

Mandating the network operators to keep their 3G networks up and running isn't going to happen either.

Because the service was to be provided free of charge to the public the Network providers were never interested. In fact, a regular 3G based device does ping the network regularly. So the network operators do need to add additional capacity. So they came up with what is called a “dormant” SIM.

So the recall device is never connected to the Network, can't be tracked either until an emergency call is made. No data other than the minimum subscriber data necessary to connect the call and location data is send.

Jeroen

Interesting to read about this 'dormant' SIM. Unfortunately, in Sweden, the status of the eCall system is very much part of the mandatory road-worthiness checks. If the SOS/eCall system doesn't work, the car fails the check and then the user is obligated to fix the issue before a reexamination. If the issue is not fixed or fixable, the car gets an automatic traffic ban, and by some estimates, there are as many as 300000 car users in Sweden who are likely to be hit by this issue. I'm potentially one of them!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by supermax

Unfortunately, in Sweden, the status of the eCall system is very much part of the mandatory road-worthiness checks. If the SOS/eCall system doesn't work, the car fails the check and then the user is obligated to fix the issue before a reexamination. If the issue is not fixed or fixable, the car gets an automatic traffic ban, and by some estimates, there are as many as 300000 car users in Sweden who are likely to be hit by this issue. I'm potentially one of them!

Interesting. Do you know how they actually test the eCall system? Because I doubt very much they will have it calling the emergency service?

They must have some sort of test mode, independent of the network. If that is the case, it would still pass the test!

I found a few (commercial) articles about eCall test equipment and it appears this is exactly what they do. In which case your car would still pass the test!

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/nl/app...6280-4097.html

Because this is of course the thing. Your eCall does not work without network coverage. Your car still complies with the requirements set by the EU directive. Unfortunately, there is no network. But then again, in Sweden, 3G coverage can be patchy in some areas as well. The EU directive dictates the requirements on the car. It can not (and does not) dictate requirements for the network towards the owner of the car.

The requirement for your car is to be able to connect to a 3G network. With or without a 3G network, it is always capable of doing so.

Drivers/owners can not be held accountable for not having 3G coverage. At least that would be my Layman's thinking.

It would be interesting to understand the formal legal position in this matter. Is it the owner/driver's responsibility to have 3G coverage? If so, how does that work for areas where there is no 3G coverage today?

The parties making a huff about this issue, are not necessarily the ones I trust to represent an unbiased view.

[supermax]

The latest update on this drama is that I've now contacted my Skoda dealership, and the guy in charge tried to give me a very airy-fairy explanation, trying to say that the problem would affect far too many people so they'll obviously figure out a solution! Hah! I know that it affects potentially 300000 or more car owners, but if the decision has been made to stop the services, I don't see that changing. They'll ultimately go through with it. There might be a compromise on not switching off entirely the next year, but to extend it to another year or two, at least for 2g, but that's probably the extent of their largess, making this a bit of a ticking time bomb issue. The bad news though is that most of the good options on the used car market would also be affected, so I won't gain much by selling my car only to buy another with the same issue, that too when I'm perfectly happy with my existing car! I don't have the flexibility to buy a brand new car today, and that too when the interest rates are scandalous, and that puts me right between the devil and the deep sea.

[PreludeSH]

Operators in Europe are still demanding 2G from equipment vendors. We are asked to support 2G, 4G and 5G in single solution.
This is very Europe specific requirement. So may be they think they need 2G for some time to come.

[amol4184]

My car (Subaru Outback) is a victim of this. 3G phase-out began in 2022. By late 2022 I started noticing battery power diminishing after just 3-4 days of being idle. Sometime in 2023 I changed my battery and went out for a vacation for 1 week - came back only to find battery dead again!

Apparently a service called Starlink was trying to access 3G network incessantly and returning failure at every access request. The programming was probably not done properly as it kept trying to access 3G towers that had been deactivated until the battery died.

Finally in May 2024 Subaru sent a service bulletin letter acknowledging the issue and offered a free "bypass" switch installation that will basically deactivate the Starlink system (I wasn't using it anyway) and solve the issue. For people who use Starlink, there is free 4G unit upgrade.

Got it done just last week and for the first time in a long time battery seems strong after lying idle.

I checked the invoice, labor including it was $770 but no charges were accrued on me. Damn right. Now I am in the process of filing a claim for expenses I incurred to change the battery.