How To Use 2g On Iphone

Some people are still using 2G phones, and not for the reasons you'd expect

Shed a tear, 2G is coming to an finish. Credit: Flickr/isla_yelo

These are the twilight hours of 2G. The old mobile telephone network, on which many of us spent our youth in the '90s texting and playing Serpent, is slowly getting phased out in Australia.

The state's biggest telcos are turning it off: Telstra has said information technology aims to phase out 2G by the end of 2016 and Optus from April 2017. Vodafone has not yet announced whatsoever plans to shut down 2G.

"While demand for 3G and 4G is increasing, we recognise many customers are satisfied with a basic mobile service," a Vodafone spokesperson told Mashable Australia. "We're continually monitoring spectrum to residual the need for 2G, 3G and 4G services on the Vodafone network."

While most Australians are playing around on 3G or 4G these days, in that location are those who remain loyally on and so-called "impaired phones," Nokia 3310s in their rictus grip. Whether out of necessity or fashion, these Australians are getting the most out of 2G, while information technology lasts.

A social conscience

Rachel, 61, a part-time Sydney school instructor, is still happily on the 2G network. Her telephone is an old Nokia -- she'south not sure of the exact model. In fact, she has a collection of phones and spare parts she'south picked upwardly from op-shops. "When one goes bung, I just move onto the next one," she told Mashable Australia.

Her main reason for sticking with a pre-paid 2G service is to keep her bills low. "I never make outgoing calls, and the purpose was simply and then I could be contacted," she explained.

She's also averse to wasteful purchases. "Get-go of all, as a general affair, I'm sometime," she said. "I really hate gadgets and I pretty much never buy annihilation new now." Sustainability concerns likewise play a role. "I'grand very environmentally aware," she said. "Nosotros just ship off container loads of these erstwhile electronic devices to Ghana where they just dump them ... The whole affair's ridiculous."

That doesn't mean she never gets online. Rachel has the Internet at home, merely doesn't encounter the need for it to be on her phone. "I'yard non interested in existence able to access the Cyberspace when I'one thousand walking down the street," she said. "It volition be interesting to know what I'll exercise when they become rid of [2G]."

She added that the kids at school tell her an sometime Nokia is really pretty cool at present -- they're retro.

Out of necessity

Others use 2G just because they take to. A 28-year-old occupational therapist at a Sydney hospital, who preferred non to be named, told Mashable Australia the hospital gives out 2G-enabled Nokia phones when staff go on home visits.

"You can't utilise your own phones when you're calling clients every bit a privacy affair," she explained. "We don't utilise them that much, they're merely 'in case of.'"

She speculated the Nokias are probably even so existence used in the hospital as a cost saver. "It's so hard to get money out of the public health system as information technology is. If it's not broken ... they don't want to spend unnecessarily," she said. "I would assume they were purchased new, and they just haven't broken yet."

Yet, it would be useful for the hospital staff to take devices with a few more capabilities. She said even a 3G phone would be helpful so that staff could use GPS. Every bit information technology is, she has to utilise her ain smartphone on the job. "I exercise modifications to peoples' homes," she explained, "and sometimes I have to use my own telephone to accept a photo. You lot can't do that on the old 2G ... It would be nice to have an iPad, fifty-fifty."

In general, the hospital staff are happy plenty to use the 2G phones, but she said some complain. Mostly because they've forgotten how to utilize the erstwhile Nokia phones. In the end, though, "it'due south similar riding a bike."

Mashable Image

Credit: Flickr/Kevin Steinhardt

To maintain boundaries

Antony, 28, a lawyer in Sydney, was recently made to get an iPhone 5S by his piece of work. Up until that signal, he was using a fiddling 2G-enabled Nokia that cost around A$twenty.

He had stayed away from smartphones because he didn't want to be too contactable or distracted by the Internet. "I didn't want to get piece of work emails, so I stayed off it and had my shitty, Internet-less garbage, drug dealer telephone," he said. "I don't like being online all the time. I'm non practiced at regulating myself."

He said having a "impaired" phone also provided his leisure time with a clear demarcation from work. Colleagues knew he wouldn't reply to emails at midnight.

"I had a worse telephone back in the day, and a mate threw information technology off a boat. As a stubborn refusal to join the modern age, I went and bought [another] 1 from a newsagent," he laughed. He isn't a consummate luddite, notwithstanding. He uses a laptop for work and besides bought an iPad when backpacking.

So does he now appreciate being 2G-free? "Exactly what I thought would happen has happened -- I'm only playing games," he said. "There'due south this game called 'Rick and Morty' which is pretty bloody addictive."

There are some conveniences to having an Internet-connected telephone, Antony admitted. "It'south expert having maps, and stuff like that," he said. Still, he misses the old days. "It's come crashing down -- I'm much more accessible than I'd similar to be."

In the name of privacy

Jahnine Skaif, 36, a Sydney-based insurance recoveries officer and music tour managing director, uses a 2G phone because she values her privacy, and considering she just doesn't want to be bothered.

She currently has a Samsung phone that works with 2G: "Affectionately known as a 'mail service part special' and colloquially known as the 'burner,'" she told Mashable Australia in an email.

"I similar minimal fuss when information technology comes to phones, they serve a simple function for me, and that is to communicate fast and effectively," Skaif explained. "SMS is preferred and I don't need/want emojis or long conversations."

She doesn't want people to know where she is at all hours of the day or night. "I'm likewise a licensed investigator/skip tracer, so I know the value of privacy and practise not need everyone to runway my movements," she added.

Sometimes, though, she briefly upgrades. When travelling interstate, she has an iPhone iv on the 3G network that she tops up with Vodafone credit and uses for Google Maps and other emergencies. But more often than not, she'south on the 2G option.

Skaif even has a batch of 2G phones she gives to artists when working with them on a tour. "I give my artists a phone whilst in Commonwealth of australia for local calls to me, I specifically did this because of non using a smartphone -- that ways they can't go me on [Facebook] or WhatsApp," she said.

In the end, the old manner of phone is also just an highly-seasoned slice of applied science: "It's small which I honey. I don't understand why people want half an iPad fastened to their face?"

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