GSM wireless will die in 2017, and that's bad news for older devices
PC World
June 15, 2015
Carriers around the world are converging on 2017 as the year to turn off their GSM networks, with three operators in Singapore announcing Monday their plans to reuse their GSM spectrum for other services.
The end of GSM will free up more bandwidth for faster 3G and 4G network technologies—but will also force users of older connected devices that depend on GSM networks to upgrade or replace them.
On Monday Singaporean operators M1, Singtel and StarHub became the latest operators to set a timetable for turning off their GSM networks. They will do so on April 1, 2017, following in the footsteps of Telstra in Australia, which plans to do so by the end of 2016, and AT&T in the U.S, which will flip the switch on Jan. 1, 2017.
