Some AT&T users started panicking when they received an email from their carrier that basically said they will have to upgrade their phone if they didn’t want to lose service. It wasn’t a very good way to inform loyal customers that you were upgrading the system and that their old devices may not work with the new one. But what’s actually indicated is that this is not happening anytime soon but later on they clarified that the phasing out of the old networks will be in 2022.
If you’re easily alarmed by things like this, then you might have panicked upon receiving the email. Furthermore, it might not have been the best incentive to stay with AT&T even though they offered to “help” you get a new device. They did explain in an update email that they are upgrading their network to new technologies to be able to bring you better service, faster speeds, and greater reliability.
So basically, if you still have an old smartphone running on old networks, AT&T is phasing out support for 3G but this will not happen immediately. Your old phones will no longer be supported in 3G by February 2022. This gives you more than enough time to decide whether you still want to stay with your current carrier and upgrade your device to something newer, which is actually a much-needed thing if you want better service.
So basically 3G devices and 4G wireless devices that do not support HD voice will be the only ones affected by this network upgrade in two years. AT&T has a list of devices that will work on the network and most devices are already supported unless you have a really old device. If you do decide to stay with AT&T, they say they will help you find a new one that should make the transition “seamless”.
AT&T is giving you enough time to upgrade although the initial wording of their email might have panicked or annoyed some of their users. Now it’s still their job to get you to stay with them rather than scaring you into upgrading to a new device, so let’s see how they will be doing it in the next two years.
