- [Joanna] The time has come for 3G to pass on.
- 3G network, which means you can surf the web.
- [Narrator] Some people will like finding their way
twice as fast.
- Can you hear me now?
Good.
- [Joanna] But before, I had to say goodbye
by testing 3G one last time.
I'm calling you on my iPhone 3G on 3G.
(caller laughs)
- Why did I do this?
Because, well, I love old tech,
but also because this year,
the three big U.S. cellular carriers are sunsetting
their once groundbreaking 3G networks.
AT&T will be the first hitting the 3G kill switch
on February 22nd.
The rest will be dead by December.
They're all doing this to free up spectrum
for their 5G networks.
Even now you can't activate a 3G phone on those networks.
Something I learned the hard way,
trying to get these two phones to work
in the last couple of weeks.
This iPhone 3G, I got it handling calls and texts
on H2O wireless.
And then this iPhone 4, I finally got working
on Cricket Wireless for data,
but 3G service would get cut off every few hours or so.
- [Electronic Voice] Thank you for calling cricket wireless.
- [Operator] And you're saying you want you to
reactivate your line?
- Yes.
Both cricket and H2O wireless use the AT&T network.
But the end of 3G is not just the end
of some network technology.
This is a moment to remember that 3G really gave birth
to the modern day smartphone.
So I tried to go back in time,
challenging myself to use these old iPhones
on this old network.
Mission one, use the web to find a charger.
So yeah, this iPhone 4 is constantly dying.
Phone died again.
Phone shut down again.
Phone's dead again.
Phone shut down again.
It works pretty well when it's plugged in.
So I went on a search for a new,
charger best buy.
I missed that loading of the blue bar.
I won't make you wait.
It took the iPhone 4 on 3G,
39 seconds to load the site.
It took the iPhone 12 Pro on 4G, less than five seconds.
Sure, that's insanely slow.
And right now these images don't load well
because the browser is so outdated and mobile versions
of websites today require more bandwidth.
But you have to remember that before 3G,
we had 2G or Edge, which was fine
for quickly getting texts and email,
but horrible for loading webpages or any other images.
- We're off to the races here.
3G 2.8 times faster.
- [Joanna] Mission to get an Uber.
So this is sort of amazing.
This iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1 from back in 2010,
had the Uber app installed.
I tried logging in with my username and password,
but first I got a lot of this.
And then it says my Uber account has been disabled.
Of course, that has nothing to do with 3G.
This version of the Uber app is old and it's not supported
anymore by the company.
Just gonna wait.
So I had to use my 5G iPhone 12 to get an Uber.
It's a bummer because 3G was actually crucial
to getting new apps like Uber started.
So I called up someone who had an insider view
when the app revolution was just getting started.
Hi Ralph.
- [Ralph] Yes.
- Hey, it's Joanna from the Wall Street Journal.
How are you?
- [Ralph] Hey, fine Joanna, how are you?
- That's Ralph de la Vega.
He was the CEO of AT&T mobility
when the first iPhones were introduced
and were exclusive to AT&T.
- [Ralph] We met with the Uber team and they asked us
to help them finance the iPhones that were going to be given
to the drivers.
They explained to us what they were planning to do
with smartphones, with mobile broadband technology,
and with this amazing, easy-to-use interface
that use the GPS capability on the iPhone.
And it was an aha! moment.
- Mission three, post a photo.
So yes, I finally made it to Best Buy.
Success.
Of course, I had to brag about it
by posting on social media,
which was also fueled by the mobile revolution.
Except yet again,
the Instagram app was too old and the website didn't load.
I got luckier with Facebook.
The upload failed a few times,
why upload failed,
but then I was finally able to get it to work
via the mobile Facebook site.
But remember this photo was small, just 160 kilobytes.
A selfie taken with the iPhone 12 is much bigger.
Look, everyone, 3G,
3G, woo hoo!
3G, before it dies.
And this video wasn't even HD let alone 4k.
As smartphone cameras got better, we also got 4G,
which was even faster for all the things photo and video.
It also brought even better video streaming.
And it's why around that time,
we started to see bigger displays on our phones.
And that brings us full circle, with 3G going away,
making more room for 5G.
3G unlocked these new apps and gave us an inkling
of what we could do on our new
go anywhere, pocket computers.
They also made us realize that we needed speed
and 4G made it all faster to do everything else
we do on our modern big screen phones.
5G is well, 5G is supposed to do something better
than all that.
- [Ralph] This technology with faster download speeds,
less latency and accuracy to pinpoint location
even better than the prior technologies,
tells me that we're going to see
another cycle of incredible innovation.
- So thank you 3G, rest in peace.
I will kinda miss you.
Probably not.
Can I borrow your 5G phone?
- [Kenny] Sure
Thank you, Kenny.
Thank you, 5G.