Sidebar

T-Mobile will finish shutting down Sprint’s 3G network, also known as CDMA, on March. 31, 2022, and retire Sprint’s LTE network by June 30, 2022. T-Mobile also plans to shut down its 3G networks by July 1, 2022, and will retire its older GSM 2G network, but no date has been set.

Verizon said it would finish decommissioning its 3G network by Dec. 31, 2022.

To help you prepare for the upcoming AT&T GSM/3G/4G Sunset, which is scheduled to occur on February 22, 2022, below are some notable items to be aware of. For clarity, any device designated as “GSM” or “3G” must be replaced by this date, as functionality will be impacted and life safety signals will not be communicated.  Some devices may communicate via "roaming" through July of 2022 but don't count on it.

There are other resources to help seniors prepare for the 3G cellular shutdown that can help you make the transition.

Your 3G and 4G GSM cellular devices may experience the following conditions after February 22, 2022:

Communication Failures

• Communication failures may occur depending on the programmed supervision rate of the account (typically Daily or Monthly). A communication failure message will be generated to the Central Station if that supervision period has expired, and the device has not checked in during that time.
• You may also have accounts that are programmed as unsupervised. For those accounts a communication failure will not be generated.
• For UL Mercantile and Commercial Fire accounts, a communication failure will be generated to the Central Station depending on the account’s programmed supervision rate.

Reminders are generated to the Central Station based on the programmed supervision rate of the account:

• “Daily Supervision”, reminders are generated daily
• “Monthly Supervision”, reminders are generated weekly
• “Unsupervised”, will not generate any reminders
•  For all other supervision levels, reminders are generated daily

Panel/Keypad Faults

• You may also experience a local audible annunciation and fault condition that would be displayed on the systems keypad or touch screen. That local annunciation is dependent on how the system is programmed. Typically, that programming field is called “Cell Fault Time” and is defaulted to “60 minutes”. The fault will occur if the communicator can no longer communicate with the cellular network and the 60-minute time period has expired.

Dual-Path Communicators (IP and 3G/4G)

Prior to February 22, 2022, any Dual-Path account should be reprogrammed to ensure that the IP path is the primary and sole communication path, providing there are no agency type restrictions.

When IP is connected and active, those accounts will continue to communicate via IP. You are responsible for changing those accounts to IP only.  If this is not done, you  may experience the local fault conditions and corresponding audible annunciations as described previously. These accounts will no longer have dual path communication after February 22, 2022. Your communicator upgrade to LTE for those accounts can occur after the AT&T Sunset date.

Account Cancellations

Due to the timing and ambiguities of the specific shutdown processes around the sunset, companies will will not be unilaterally cancelling any accounts after the AT&T sunset and you will remain liable for all account fees.  Please note that any GSM/3G account that remains active will continue to be billed at their normal rates.