Econet to phase out 3G by end of 2027

Econet has said it’s planning to switch off 3G network by end of next year. The company says it will then gradually phase out 2G as it shifts its focus to faster 4G and 5G services.

Econet CEO, Douglas Mboweni, said in a release we received today:

“Our plan is to shut down 3G first, by the end of December 2027. Only a small proportion of our customers remain on 3G, as most are now using 4G and 5G. We are encouraging those still on the older technology to migrate to the higher-speed technologies.

We must give rural customers more time to replace their phones while supporting them with affordable handsets and flexible payment terms. We will first upgrade network coverage and then help customers in rural communities migrate to 4G as the minimum standard. That work is already underway.

Econet says it plans to pour hundreds of millions into more 4G and 5G infrastructure.

According to the latest Zimbabwe telecoms sector performance report by the sector’s regulator, Econet has more 3G base stations than 4G ones. Here’s the breakdown of its base stations by technology:

• 2G – 2,981
• 3G – 2,071
• 4G – 1,951
• 5G – 353

It seems 3G still does some heavy lifting on the Econet network. In fact, 74 more 3G base stations were added between last December and March this year. So it’s surprising the company says “only a small proportion of its customers are on 3G.”

Whatever the case, Econet needs enough 4G coverage to replace whatever those 2,071 3G base stations currently provide. Which maybe explains those hundreds of millions Econet says it needs to spend.

Econet isn’t unusually early. Rwanda is targeting June 2027 for its 3G shutdown, while South Africa has set the same December 2027 deadline as Econet.

Customers with 3G-only smartphones will be affected by this 3G shutdown. December 2027 is still some 15 months away and the big unknown is how many Econet subscribers will still be using 3G-only devices by then. If that number remains significant as the deadline approaches, the company will face the difficult task of getting those customers onto 4G devices or reconsidering the deadline.

Complicating this further is that Econet’s move comes when, globally, prices of smartphones have skyrocketed owing to an AI-driven RAM crisis. It’s so bad it’s being called the “RAMageddon“.

It’s estimated the crisis will persist, and might actually get worse, for another year or so as the AI demand grows. What this means is that many will not be able to upgrade their devices.

To be clear, it’s not necessarily that these 3G-only phones will stop working come January 2028. Econet says 2G will remain for longer, so compatible phones should still be able to fall back to 2G. For internet access though, 2G’s so slow it might as well not be there for the average user’s needs.

According to its announcement today, maintaining several generations of mobile technology simultaneously puts pressure on spectrum allocation (what mobile operators buy for tens of millions from government, to be able to operate a mobile network). It’s expensive because it’s a limited resource. Econet says freeing up some of this spectrum allows it to use it for 4G and 5G services.

Econet also said in its release that it’s stepping up its fight against “grey handsets.” Econet says they now have the capability to detect such smartphones and that when they connect to the network, they’ll alert the customer and also let authorities know, “to help curb the practice.”

The term “grey handset” usually means genuine phones imported through unofficial channels or intended for another regional market (in Zimbabwe’s case usually Asia and the Middle East). Econet, however, appears to be using it differently here. It describes grey handsets as devices sold as smartphones but which don’t actually meet their advertised specs, essentially the questionable or outright fake smartphones that are fairly common on the local market. You can check out a video we did of a fake iPhone 17 Pro Max, earlier this year. These fake iPhones are really just bottom of the barrel Android phones, pretending to be what they’re not.

If you’re buying a smartphone between now and December 2027, it’d be really unwise to buy one that doesn’t support 4G. Especially considering that Econet commands 75% of the mobile network subscriptions in Zimbabwe.

You can read the full release here.

The post Econet to phase out 3G by end of 2027 appeared first on Techzim.