If your business uses 2G/3G networks for anything or relies heavily on Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) interfaces, then you’ve probably heard the newsflash — the future is here and 2G/3G is going away —soon. If you have been putting off migration or transition and budget planning for the impending 2G/3G sunsetOpens a new window , then the time to act is now.
Let this post be your guide. It gives you all the information you need to inform your colleagues on what the 2G/3G sunset means to the business and gets you started on the critical planning and prep needed to get your company on the road to next-gen networks. Let’s go!
Are You Still Running on 2G or 3G Networks?
While technology changes usually call for software upgrades, this network transition is particularly challenging as it may force hardware modifications. According to this study by James Brehm & AssociatesOpens a new window , “Of the more than 125 million cellular IoT devices deployed, 53.1% are still running on 2G or 3G networks.†[1] And worryingly, many companies are unaware that their IoT solutions are in peril. If your business is one of them, then you should know that big changes are afoot in the telecom industry, and they are going to impact your business no matter which vertical you operate in, from manufacturing to healthcare to retail, and these changes will confront you with major decisions for which you need to be prepared.
In one of several posts on 5G technologies, AT&T BusinessOpens a new window notes that, “With the arrival of 5G technology, the (manufacturing) sector faces its biggest transformation yet.†[2] Part of the reason is the shutdown and sunset of older 2G and 3G network technologies.
2G networks were typically used to support IoT devices and M2M services. This is because 2G fulfilled their low-cost, low-bandwidth network requirements. However, with the current and upcoming sunsets of 2G/3G networks, companies must move quickly to convert or migrate devices and network infrastructure before it is too late.
Why are carriers shutting down these networks? Carriers are expanding into 4G LTE and 5G, and they need to re-use the spectrum occupied by older networks. The implication is that running your older IoT and M2M devices on 2G or 3G networks will no longer be cost-effective or even possible. As carriers continue to expand to better technologies, they will reduce or eliminate technical support and services for older networks. Further, as they re-purpose the spectrum to 5G, network resources and bandwidth for older devices will decline.
You’re probably wondering when these networks will actually shut down and how soon your company needs to begin planning their transition? The short answer is, ready or not, here comes the transformation.
Current Sunset Plans for 2G and 3G
Many large carriers have already shut down their 2G services or are planning to in the near future. Also, these carriers have already shut down or are planning to phase out their 3G networks. By 2022, few or no of these older networks will be available.
Many industries are already planning for this transition, including manufacturing, industrial automation, financial services, healthcareOpens a new window and transportation, given their heavy dependence on network-driven services. For example, in manufacturing, the cost of failing to transition away from 2G/3G will be felt in reduction or elimination of the ability to run plant automation processes and intra-plant materials transport.
Financial services firms may have important customer-facing applications such as kiosks and web portals that depend on older networks. Health care providers may have critical care devices on these networks. These business sectors should immediately develop plans that include a short-term goal of implementing 4G LTE networked devices with eventual migration to 5G technologiesOpens a new window .
Plan Your Transition Now, Before It’s Too Late
Your transition will require staff, planning, resources, time and the right technology provider. There will be devices and networks to inventory. You may have to replace old devices or upgrade software. You may have mission-critical applications that have special network requirements. Some companies may not have enough on-premise staff in their various geographies to manage every device changeover, including testing, phased migration and fallback planning should any migration fail. Finally, you need to develop a budget that may include multi-year components and contracts with service organizations and providers.
Opens a new window Move To 4G LTE With AT&T BusinessOpens a new window
Mobile carriers are planning to stop 2G and 3G services soon. Businesses should expedite the adoption of 4G LTE or LTE-M services. AT&T Business, a leading network with robust platforms and solutions is the apt choice for your 4G LTE upgrade.
Below is a list of steps for a typical transition. (This list may not contain all the steps that you require but should serve as a template for you to begin planning.)
Five Critical Steps to Getting Your Business Ready for the 2G/3G Sunset
1. Inventory Connected Devices and Networks
You should already have a list of devices and network resources. Is the list up to date? Take the time now to ensure you have processes in place to regularly review and update your inventory. Some devices and network resources may be on-premise or in remote locations, and some may be managed by third parties or cloud providers. Pay particular attention to this last item, because contracts with service providers usually contain provisions regarding required upgrades of devices and software.
Another part of your inventory should include a list of what specific applications use which network resources. This will become important when you amalgamate the inventory with capacity planning processes. You may already have some upgrades planned. Some examples include up-scaling networks and computing resources for an upcoming holiday season or reviewing new network providers’ proposals.
2. Identify Critical Application Requirements
There are significant advantages to reviewing mission-critical applications at the beginning of your network transition planning, since the failure of such an application can be costly in terms of money, time and resources. Consequently, these applications should be the first to be tested when contemplating network and device changes.
Second, critical applications commonly have special network requirements such as high bandwidth, low latency, or high network speeds. Special needs may require special transition planning that includes comprehensive resource capacity planning and time and staff for testing. Of course, these applications also figure prominently in your disaster recovery (DR) planning. This means that DR plans need to be updated to include the recovery of failed devices and network infrastructure.
Finally, successful testing of critical applications as part of your initial transition away from 2G and 3G networks can provide staff with valuable experience and confidence in their ability to complete the remainder of the transition. Of course, critical applications are most likely the ones that will generate the best value when attached to your new network.
3. Develop Transition Strategy
A transition strategy is business-wide. It is a multi-part plan that involves all aspects of your organization. While network upgrades are usually relegated to specific technical staff or third-party providers or vendors, the applications that use these resources span all aspects of your company. Each business area (manufacturing, shipping, finance, asset management, human resources, etc.) will have applications that use your network. Information technology is also a part of the process. Cloud providers supplying services such as database-as-a-service (DBaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and so forth will also need to be involved. Start planning stakeholder management and change management strategies to enable a seamless transition with organizational-wide buy-in. Naming a senior executive to champion the transition will also help ensure functional leaders are on board and prepared.
4. Service Management Planning
Service management encompasses work planning processes to provide services to parts of your business. Usually customer-oriented, it concentrates on using standard processes and procedures to give value to clients both internal and external. Typically used in an information technology context, service management defines IT-related activities and relationships with service users. One often-used set of templates is from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of detailed IT practices that focuses on aligning IT services with business needs.
Part of your transition planning will include changes to your current service management. Service management plans should already exist across your organization. These will need to be updated and expanded to include new device and network technologies and capabilities. These resources, or services, can then be provided to business units in a manageable fashion.
5. Choose a Network Transition Advisor
Your most important choice will probably be that of an advisor to assist you in planning and executing your transition. You may need assistance in the initial planning of a complex transition, the first rollout and testing of the technology, or in implementing a long-term M2M/IoT solution.
Working with a single advisor will be easier than coordinating with multiple third-party providers and their perhaps separate and/or overlapping solutions. Another benefit of a single advisor is that most telecom firms currently provide some of your network infrastructure and should have a business unit that can assist you in the transition.
One potential network provider is AT&T Business, which is emerging as the preferred choice across industries for a smooth migration. In 2019, GartnerOpens a new window named AT&T Business a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Managed IoT Connectivity Services for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.[3]
In 2016, AT&T Business migrated over 16 millionOpens a new window 2G devices off the 2G network, and moved over 80,000 devices deployed in M2M services — asset tracking, remote monitoring, smart building, and fleet — in less than six months. When it comes to upgrading a large base of installed devices or orchestrating an enterprise-scale network migration, experience, capacity and scale matter above all. Picking the right advisor will help ensure a smooth migration while mitigating the risk of business disruption or revenue impact.
The Market Is Moving to 5G
In a recent reportOpens a new window , market intelligence provider IDC projects that, “The number of 5G connections will grow from roughly 10 million in 2019 to 1.01 billion in 2023. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 217.2% over the 2019-2023 forecast period. By 2023, IDC expects 5G will represent 8.9% of all mobile device connections.â€[4]
Gartner Inc. echoes this sentiment. Kosei Takiishi, senior research director at Gartner, recently statedOpens a new window that, “Investment in wireless infrastructure continues to gain momentum, as a growing number of communications service providers (CSPs) are prioritizing 5G projects by reusing current assets including radio spectrum bandwidths, base stations, core network and transport network, and transitioning LTE/4G spend to maintenance mode.â€[5]
Business leaders also cannot afford to ignore the many opportunities and benefits that migration to new technologies can bring — cost reduction, performance improvement, faster processing, and the ability to reengineer the IoT solution and improve level of service.
Companies should begin their 2G/3G transition planning right away and with an eye towards an eventual migration to 5G technology.
Start Your Planning Now
Begin with your initial device and network inventory and your critical application requirements. Supplement this with current hardware and network upgrade plans and your capacity planning process. Review your materials with an eye to any components that are either mission-critical or utilize older network infrastructure, as these will most likely be the first to be transitioned, tested, and evaluated for cost and performance. Your network transition advisor can assist you with this, especially if you plan to migrate to 5G in the near future.
Pause at this point, and re-consider your disaster recovery processes. As you begin a transition, each bit of technology that you change must be accounted for in your DR plans. Failure to do so will make any outage more costly and affect problem determination and remediation. Can you back out device changes and still use previous devices? Can you back out network changes and still run your business? Don’t forget, many agreements you may have with information advisors or service providers must also be updated. For example, is your company subject to Payment Card Industry (PCI) standardsOpens a new window ? If so, your transition must take these into account in terms of DR planning.
After that, begin developing your transition strategy. This will most likely be a phased approach over time, with the first phase being the critical components mentioned above. After initial transitions are complete, you have the opportunity to stop and review. This review is more than just an evaluation of what you did in the first phase: you will now re-engage with your transition advisor to determine what changes may be necessary for your plans. Are there cost overruns? Are portions of the network adding significant value to your business and should therefore be expanded? Do you have sufficiently trained staff to continue with the transition? Are your third-party service vendors keeping up with their own network and device transition tasks?
The industry-wide upgrade to 5G is set to be a crucial transformation journey — one that you will be leading for your business. It starts with great planning and will be hinged on continuous stakeholder engagement and flawless execution, and working with a strong network transition provider that meets your needs could be one of the keys to success.
Sources:
1 The Sunset of 2G/3G Is Coming. Is Your Business Ready?Opens a new window
2 How 5G will Revolutionize ManufacturingOpens a new window , AT&T
3 Gartner names AT&T a “Leader†in 2019 Magic Quadrant reportOpens a new window
4 IDC Forecasts Worldwide 5G Connections to Reach 1.01 Billion in 2023Opens a new window
5 Gartner Says Worldwide 5G Network Infrastructure Spending to Almost Double in 2020Opens a new window