The 2G switch-off will find the devices small firms forgot

On 22 January the Digital Connectivity Forum (DCF), an industry think-tank, published a 78-page report by Plum Consulting, International lessons from 2G network sunsetting. It studies how other countries have retired their 2G mobile networks and what the UK should learn before its own switch-off. As of December 2025, the report notes, 19 countries had turned off all 2G services.

The UK timetable is set in outline. In 2021 the government agreed with the mobile operators that all public 2G and 3G networks would be switched off by 2033. EE has since said on its website that it will begin closing its 2G network from May 2029, as ISPreview reported on 12 January.

Most of the report is addressed to Ofcom, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the operators. The part that matters to business buyers sits in its middle chapters and its final recommendations: well beyond handsets, 2G carries payment terminals, alarms, remote monitoring, fleet telematics and lift emergency lines – equipment that sits in the back office or the plant room of small and mid-sized businesses for years without anyone asking how it connects.

That is why the 2G switch-off should be handled as the second half of the landline switch-off, not as a separate project for 2029. The same kinds of device are exposed to both, and a business that inventories them once will pay for the change once.

Networks cannot see every device

The report is frank about the limits of operator data. Regulators elsewhere gathered figures from network operators, but that was “often insufficient to give a comprehensive picture of the size of the market due to generic chipsets and roaming agreements”. Devices on roaming SIMs may be difficult to identify. Equipment that connects only when something happens, such as a monitoring sensor, may be unknown to the operator altogether.

It is equally clear that migration campaigns never reach everyone. Experience shows they “will inevitably not result in 100% of customers being moved”, so some users are always left on the old network on the day it closes.

The international cases show what late discovery costs. In France, nearly half of all lifts, around 290,000 systems, use 2G or 3G emergency call systems; lift manufacturers asked for a delay and the operators kept their timelines. In Iceland, the national tourist board warned businesses that payment terminals and other transaction systems running on 2G or 3G would stop working. Swisscom told lift operators in 2015 that upgrades would be needed ahead of a 2021 sunset. Countries with shorter notice periods, such as Taiwan, often had many users still on 2G at switch-off.

One audit can cover both switch-offs

Government guidance on the move from analog to digital landlines, which the telecoms industry is due to complete by January 2027, lists the business equipment at risk: analog phones, fire and other alarms, payment terminals, lifts and elevators, intercoms. Swap the copper line for a 2G radio module and the DCF report’s list of exposed equipment looks much the same.

A business already checking its alarm panel, card readers and lift line for the landline switchover should ask, on the same visit, whether any of them connects over a mobile network, as a main path or a backup, and on which generation of network. Answering that question in 2026 costs an engineer’s time. Answering it in 2029 may cost a site that cannot take payments or raise an alarm.

Buying 2G should stop now

The report’s most immediate recommendation is aimed at service providers: stop selling devices that rely on 2G and source 4G or 5G equipment instead. Buyers do not need to wait for providers to comply. Any alarm, tracker, card terminal or sensor bought from now on should be specified in the contract as working on 4G or 5G networks, including the low-power versions the report names for long-life devices, with replacement at the supplier’s cost if it is not.

Next, ask the companies that supply managed devices – the alarm monitoring firm, the payment provider, the fleet tracking service – for a written list of what they have installed on 2G and a date for replacing it. The report recommends that service providers audit their supply chains and contact customers who bought 2G-only devices. Customers who ask first are likely to be dealt with first.

Rural sites need particular care. The report’s coverage analysis shows areas, near Newport and around Hadrian’s Wall, where 2G reaches places that 4G does not, and it recommends that service providers and users work with operators to find locations with no 4G or 5G coverage where 2G is still in use. A farm, quarry or depot on the edge of coverage should get that answer from its operator in writing before it replaces anything.

The operators will give notice before they close 2G. They cannot give notice to a device they do not know exists.