Ending 3G Service Sparks Fears of an 'Alarmaggedon'

[Celerity]

10. 4G to 5G: How Long Will 4G LTE Be Available? (much longer than a couple years)

https://www.digi.com/blog/post/4g-to-5g-how-long-will-4g-lte-be-available

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Our current generation of cellular technology, 4G LTE, was introduced in 2008 with Release 8 by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which is an organization that develops standards for mobile communications. The 3GPP issues standard releases with incremental improvements about every other year (up to Release 14) and guides the evolution of the 4G standard.

4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a technology that has now been proven in both consumer and commercial applications. 4G LTE is flexible. It accommodates, for example, low-power LTE-M and NB-IoT devices that typically transmit only a few KBs of data, as well as devices capable of high-speed Gigabit data transmission. Because of its widespread adoption, 4G LTE is also very affordable, especially compared to the cost of the newest, high-end 5G technology, which earns the term “bleeding edge” in terms of cost and capabilities, as well as support.

The Transition from 4G to 5G

With the exponential growth of IoT devices in recent years and the aforementioned limited spectrum, the lifespan of cellular technology is getting shorter. 2G and 3G have been sunsetted to make room for the more spectrum-efficient 4G LTE and emerging 5G technologies. 4G is expected to last for at least another decade, and possibly longer with the help of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which shares available spectrum between 4G LTE and 5G devices. DSS provides improved coverage for 5G devices and greater longevity for 4G LTE devices. The first 4G LTE sunset announcements are expected after 2030, which means that companies can safely invest in 4G-based IoT solutions today and for the foreseeable future.