In a statement, the operator adds that “the 3G network will begin to be disrupted within a year, allowing for a smooth and gradual transition” and that “the change will allow the frequencies to be used to accelerate the country’s digitization in 5G and future mobile generations.”
Vodafone Portugal “will begin gradually within a year, starting in July 2024, to disconnect the 3G network, which is an important step towards enhancing customer access in the country to faster, more efficient and more secure communications.”
The change was expected due to technological development and “will make it possible to respond to the increasing consumption of data, reallocating the frequencies used until now by 3G to use more modern networks such as 4G and 5G”.
The company notes that “with this update that benefits the digitization of the country, communications gain more speed, capacity, stability, efficiency and flexibility.”
It guarantees that the majority of Vodafone’s customers “will not be affected by this change, as they are already using equipment and SIM cards compatible with the remaining generations of mobile communications.”
Regarding customers who are not in this situation “Vodafone will contact them in due course and they will have an extended period – one year – to make a gradual transition, either by updating their device or SIM card”.
However, Vodafone has also created a page on their website with the most frequently asked questions so that people can ask questions on this topic.
3G, which Vodafone pioneered in Portugal in 2004, helped revolutionize its time, by allowing faster mobile Internet access and video streaming on mobile phones, for example. Its weight in global data traffic, which today is small. In addition, the network equipment that allows it to operate is today less energy efficient, so its modernization and replacement will have a positive environmental impact, “he explains.
The end of the 3G network in Portugal “follows similar moves by Vodafone in markets such as the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland, which is part of a global trend to discontinue outdated technologies,” he concludes.
