phone help

[luther]

I keep a cheap mobile in my car which is basically a walkie-talkie with my wife. Her phone gets all the real calls from friends and businesses.

So, I wasn't paying attention to the 2G auction thing. Today the phone stop working.

Do I just walk into AIS and ask for a new sim card (same number) and walk out or is it more complicated than that?

[lopburi3]

I suspect your phone does not support anything except 2G so will need to get a new phone or change to DTAC.

[CMMCB]

Hmm, I've been paying slightly (but not much more) attention and noticed that AIS has been given an extra couple of months of 2G life. Mine's still working and should do until June (or is it July?). Maybe the credit ran out or the heat in the car finally did for the phone?

I think AIS will still swap your old phone for a new one, as per the long-running "free" offer, if you take the thing in to their shop.

[noise]

Make sure you ask if your phone will work with 3G. AIS sent mass SMSs to everyone saying "your phone will die". It was not restricted to 2G phones. So unless you ask, you may end up switching to something your are not happy with (my AIS said the free phone was not very good quality) or paying to upgrade unnecessarily.

As CMMCB pointed out, 2G phones got an extension, so you may have another problem.

[cyberfarang]

Both my girlfriend`s and my phone suddenly stopped working without warning. We are on True Move H. Told to throw our phones in the bin as they are 2G and now useless. Had to buy 2 new 3G phones and was able to keep our same phone numbers.

[CMMCB]

The missus just reminded me that, even if your phone will support 3G, you may need a new (free) SIM card, which AIS gave me a few weeks ago.

[JLT]

Oh! Aren't they only "useless" if you want internet access?

[CMMCB]

JLT, ... no. 2G is due to be phased out completely in the near future, with the frequency used for new 3G (or 4G?) providers.

[JLT]

Thanks I'm sorry to be so dim but I'm not sure I understand.

I have a Samsung S GT-I9000 Android which is about 6 / 7 years old. It's in perfect working order and I only use the internet via wifi for occasional internet use. Otherwise I just use it as a phone, for SMS messaging and as a camera.

I think I've established that it's "3G" so I'm guessing I'm OK for the time being. But does being able to use my phone depend on whether it's 2G or 3G because I thought my signal came via transponders in the various phone masts?

Thanks

JLT

Edited April 27, 2016 by JLT

[lopburi3]

The issue is that 2G (second generation) ceased to be state of the art some 15-18 years ago and is not going to be supported much longer in Thailand as they need the bandwidth for newer (much faster) systems - 4G is already 8 years old so should be replaced soon (and Thailand has not even replaced 2G yet). 2G is the original digital transmission system and well past its use by date.

Edited April 27, 2016 by lopburi3

[JLT]

Thank you for your help.

For anyone who might be as ignorant as I am about mobile phone technology

I found an article which seems to confirm that whether or not a phone is 2G or 3G and despite what the phone shop salespeople might say, they can still be used for making phone calls, for messaging and as a camera and don't have to be upgraded if that's all you want your phone for. The "G" refers to the phone being 1st, 2nd; 3rd or 4th generation phones which progressively have more powerful processors for faster upload and download speeds.

"2G, 3G, 4G, 4GLTE - the "G" stands for “generation,” that is, the Generation of Network".

• 1G was a purely analog network that was designed to carry voice and nothing else.

• 2G came in the early nineties as cell phones really started to take off. Among other things, 2G networks transported data via a digital signal, offered higher voice quality, improved security, and a higher traffic capacity than the 1G networks. 2G supports voice, text, and data, and offered up to 250 Kbps of speed.

• 3G was launched in the early 2000’s, and offered significantly improved uplink and downlink speeds, a higher traffic capacity, and speeds between 200 Kbps up to 3 Mbps.

• 4G is a rather meaningless term, as there is no global standard for upload/download speed or traffic capacity.

• G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the most common form of 4G, and has the highest upload and download speeds on the market today. LTE is purely data, so your voice calls are translated into a form of data, transferred to the destination, and re-translated into voice again. LTE is especially handy when you’re doing a lot of uploading of photos and/or videos, as the upload speeds are significantly higher than 3G, depending on the carrier’s network and the traffic capacity they carry.

[lopburi3]

The issue is the provider will no longer be providing 2G service - they have lost the frequency used for that service - so they either must make arrangements to provide using another service obtain new frequency allowance. There just will not be any transponder to connect with on there service for 2G.

So no they can not be used once a service ends there 2G transponder access - you would have to use a new service still providing that service or change phone to what they currently support.

[JLT]

OK thank you..