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Search complete. 67 mentions across 7 episodes found for "3G".
Sep 25, 2026
Jess KellyHOST
As always, if you've any recommendations for me, what are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you watching? techtalkatnewstalk.com is the email address.
Jess KellyHOST
Now, air is switching off its 3G network.
Jess KellyHOST
This is something that has been done by other networks.
Jess KellyHOST
But let's find out why it's happening and if it's going to impact you.
Jess KellyHOST
Thank you very much.
Jess KellyHOST
And you? I'm very well, thank you.
Jess KellyHOST
So I was reading your piece in the Irish Times during the week about air shutting off the 3G network.
Jess KellyHOST
Let's just take this all one step at a time.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Keira.
Shane ColemanHOST
Now, if you were stuck in an online moment you couldn't get out of, it might be because you were on 3G.
Shane ColemanHOST
But you probably haven't been using a lot of 3G lately.
Shane ColemanHOST
And from October 1st, air will begin to turn off the 3G network.
Shane ColemanHOST
It operates around the country.
Shane ColemanHOST
Donegal is first on the list with the rest of the country following it.
Shane ColemanHOST
It plans to have the entire process completed within weeks.
Shane ColemanHOST
We're joined now by Irish Times tech correspondent Ciara O'Brien.
Shari VahlHOST
She's a vicar in Suffolk.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
My husband received a phone call from Tesco Mobile or so he thought, telling him that 3G was about to be turned off and that we needed new SIM cards.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
She was very plausible.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
She knew a lot of our account details, but he just said to her, no point in talking to me.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You need to talk to my wife.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I then get a phone call the next day from this very plausible sounding woman saying she was from Tesco Mobile, giving us the same spiel.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Of course, I had heard some stuff on the news about 3G being switched off.
JennySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So it was quite plausible.
Ian MorrisHOST
Yeah, like that you could do like billions of connected objects.
Ian MorrisHOST
I thought that was novel to me because it hadn't really happened in 3G or 4G.
Ian MorrisHOST
And as you say, the ultra-reliable, was it ultra-reliable? Low latency, yeah.
Ian MorrisHOST
Yeah, I can't remember.
Scott BichenoHOST
Okay.
Ray DolanGUEST
what happens if by the time your outcome, by the time your product comes out, there's an internet? You're screwed.
Ray DolanGUEST
So 3G missed the internet.
Scott BichenoHOST
Because the bandwidth of 3G is pretty rubbish.
DeanHOST
It, 'cause we're, yeah, we're not just talking pre-mobile internet, whi- which came along, yeah, I think in 2002, something like that.
DeanHOST
3G was rolled out about then.
DeanHOST
So yeah, we're talking pre-internet internet, aren't we? Before, before any of it came along.
DeanHOST
So that's, that's great stuff.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
I started in 2010 when I came on.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
3G was dominating.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
We were just in that transition from the 3G phone to smartphone and 3G to 4G.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
So I was fortunate enough to live through the 4G era, saw the first half of 5G.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
Now we're talking about 6G.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
But what I would say, one difference with this G relative to all the other Gs is that it is somewhat uncharted territories here when it comes to understanding how AI can impact the broader mobile network vision.
Stefan PongratzGUEST
That makes it all the more exciting.
Danielle RiosHOST
And do you think that when we moved to 3G, that was really the explosion of usable data on the handset? And so people have this weird expectation of like, remember that time that massive data growth, revenue growth went with it.
Ian MorrisHOST
You have to pay a higher tariff.
Ian MorrisHOST
But the point is ARPU's carried on going down ever since 3G.
Ian MorrisHOST
Vodafone used to earn £40 a month from a contract customer in the UK in 2008 when 3G was the only option there was.
Ian MorrisHOST
And what's their RP at the moment? Less than 17 pounds a month.
Ian MorrisHOST
It's more than half.
Ian MorrisHOST
Even though we've gone from a technology that everybody regards as being quite shit, you know, and no one's got very nice things to say about 3G these days.
Ian MorrisHOST
In fact, they're turning it off in most parts of the world.
Ian MorrisHOST
We've gone to this super duper 5G network and yet people, the average contract customer is paying less than half what they paid to enjoy a 3g service so the whole idea of slicing just sort of flies in the face of of what's happened in the industry and to go back to the ryanair analogy by the way the priority boarding thing because i was saying people obviously do pay for priority boarding you see these long lines forming i mean one reason they're doing it is because i think they're worried about their bags they all come along with these big suitcases and don't want to Now, that's where the analogy falls over.