AT&T might have killed off its 2G network for the benefit of 4G and 5G, but let’s not forget just how awesome that GSM/GPRS/EDGE network was.
Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
Progress is an ever-present presence in the mobile telecommunications industry. It seems that as soon as something “new” is unveiled, its replacement is ready to take its place.
This has been an ongoing process in the mobile space, with operators turning down legacy systems like first-generation analog voice and data CDPD networks in order to divert resources to 2G and 3G networks. (#CDPD4EVER)
AT&T this week again highlighted the ever-evolving and emotionless nature of the market, explaining that the recent shut down of its GSM/GPRS/EDGE-based 2G network would be good for its next-generation network plans. Basically it killed off 2G to benefit 4G and eventually “5G.”
I know we are just talking about technology here and there is really no reason to get that attached to random acronyms, but I also feel we should not let the passing of what at one time was a significant technology in the history of mobile telecom pass without at least a mention.
Heck, I heard someone at some point got all emotional over Sprint killing off its WiMAX network. (#WIMAX4EVER)
First of all, AT&T was not always a GSM-based carrier, and in fact back in its previous incarnation as AT&T Wireless was one of the last operators to run a TDMA network. That decision was made back in the days when carriers were making their first runs at digital networks, and the somewhat GSM-related TDMA standard was thought to have a better technical standing than the startup CDMA standard.
However, one strike against TDMA was that there was little support for evolving the standard to support growing demand for early 3G-based data services, thus the carrier – and its fellow TDMA operators – moved to replace TDMA with GSM. (#TDMA4EVER)
A fun little side note on this was the short tenure of GAIT technology, which was to help bridge the gap between GSM and TDMA, but instead just provided some comic relief to the proceedings. (#GAIT4EVER)
Shortly after all of this network conversion craziness begun, the nationwide TDMA/GSM/GAIT powers in AT&T Wireless and Cingular decided it would be better to combine all of their assets into one, eventually under the “new” AT&T banner. (#CINGULAR4EVER)
As had been promised by the evolution potential of GSM, the embolden AT&T quickly bolstered its data capacity with GPRS technology that initially was thought of as being so awesome it began the whole “.5G” phenomenon (56 kilobits per second?!? 2.5G!). This craziness was then amplified by the roll out of EDGE technology and its support for speeds up to 384 kbps, which brought on the “2.75G” label.
Lucky for us this lame idea of adding a “.whatever” to an actual “G” never went beyond this. (#4.9G4EVER)
Despite what appears now to be underwhelming performance potential, it needs to be noted that AT&T’s EDGE network played a significant part of history in being the cellular data connectivity of choice for the initial Apple iPhone launch 10 years ago. And in seeing how well that network performed under the weight of that device, that’s probably more than enough words on the subject. (#EDGE4EVER)
Eventually, AT&T got on board with a real 3G technology using enhancements to the UMTS standard, and more recently has even begun to offer something close to a true 4G service. All the while the carrier has been slowly stripping spectrum and network support from those legacy 2G services to bolster the newer and shinier services.
Obviously, just because AT&T is no longer supporting the trio of GSM, GPRS and EDGE does not mean those technologies are dead. T-Mobile US for one is still touting the robustness of its 2G offerings, and has even attempted to entice AT&T customers about to get the boot to make the switch.
But, it’s only a matter of time and the writing is now on the wall for GSM-based 2G services.
So, well done AT&T in killing off a trio of acronyms. I am sure the results will make it all worthwhile and we will be able someday to sit back and laugh at the fact you ever even had GSM/GPRS/EDGE as an actual network technology. I mean really, what were you thinking? (#2G4EVER)
Thanks for checking out this week’s column. Here’s a quick extra to get you through the weekend:
–I know we have all seen the Samsung virtual reality commercials, and hopefully we can all agree just how ridiculous they are. But, just in case we didn’t before, perhaps we can now:
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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