Spain has started switching off its 2G and 3G networks, and almost no business has checked what goes silent when its turn comes.
Picture a shop in an area with patchy fibre coverage, where the card machine at the till has its own SIM card instead of connecting through the shop’s router. It’s worked flawlessly for years, tucked away since the day it was installed. Then, one ordinary morning, it stops taking payments.
It’s not a fault in the card machine. The network it talks to — 2G or 3G — simply isn’t there anymore in that area. And this isn’t a distant possibility: Spain has already started switching off these networks in stages, and most businesses have no idea how many of their devices still depend on them.
Vodafone began switching off its 3G back in 2022. Orange and Movistar plan to do the same between 2026 and 2027. The Spanish government closed a public consultation in January to set the final timetable, operator by operator. 2G will stay on for longer — probably close to 2030, because too many critical services still rely on it — but 3G is already, in practice, on its way out.
Follow the sequence: this doesn’t happen overnight
No operator is going to switch off a mast from one day to the next without warning. It’s a phased process, area by area, that can stretch out over several years. And that’s exactly the trap: because there’s no single date circled on the calendar, it’s easy to assume there’s plenty of time to prepare. Until coverage starts dropping in your area — with no specific call to warn you — and the device that’s been quietly working for ten years simply stops talking.
Let me translate that: what’s still running on 2G and 3G without you knowing
These are the devices that most often still depend on these old networks, without their owner realising it:
Card machines with their own SIM card, common in businesses with patchy fibre coverage or in rural parts of the comarca.
Alarm systems that report to the monitoring centre over a SIM card instead of the premises’ wifi.
Lifts: regulations require a two-way communication signal to a rescue centre every 72 hours, and a large share of Spain’s 500,000+ lifts older than 20 years still do this over 2G.
GPS trackers fitted to vans and commercial fleets.
None of these devices give you a warning that says “I’m about to stop working.” One day, they simply stop responding.
We see this every week
When we review a business’s setup, it’s rare to find anyone who actually knows what technology each of their connected devices runs on. A shop owner, for example, knows exactly what their electricity or rent bill costs down to the euro, but has no idea whether the alarm they installed eight years ago talks over 2G, 4G or wifi. Nobody asked at the time it was installed, and nobody has asked since.
When someone actually looks into it…
…the problem is almost never “nobody told me.” The real problem is that there’s no inventory of what depends on what. The 2G and 3G switch-off, on its own, isn’t the risk — the risk is not knowing, today, which of your devices will go silent once it’s your area’s turn.
Before the switch-off reaches your postcode, this is an afternoon’s work:
1. Ask your alarm installer what technology it uses to talk to the monitoring centre — if it’s pure 2G or 3G, get a quote to move it to 4G or wifi.
2. Check your card machine contract: if it has its own SIM, ask whether it supports VoLTE (calls and data over the internet, not the old mobile network).
3. If you have a lift under a maintenance contract, ask directly whether its emergency link still runs on 2G.
4. If you manage a fleet, ask your tracking provider for the technical spec sheet of the device fitted.
Do you know, right now, how many devices in your business are still talking over a network that’s about to be switched off?
Not to sell you anything. Just so you know: if you’d like a quick check of what depends on what in your network, before a switch-off decides for you, get in touch.
