T-Mobile customers will soon lose 2G wireless service

07 Jul 2026, 10:33 · The Fresno Bee

T-Mobile is shutting down a service it has offered customers for 35 years. The move comes as the carrier has recently been phasing out older offerings across its wireless lineup.

For example, earlier this month, T-Mobile revealed that it is discontinuing a plethora of older phone plans that launched almost 15 years ago, including Magenta, ONE, and Simple Choice, and moving affected customers to its latest offerings, resulting in price increases for some.

T-Mobile also warned customers it is eliminating its KickBack discount on July 13, which it began offering in 2017. The discount allows customers to receive $10 off each wireless line on their account that uses less than 2GB of mobile data per month.

The changes are part of a broader push to modernize its services as technology and competition in the wireless industry evolve, and this initiative is set to impact one of T-Mobile's longest-running services that customers still use.

T-Mobile retires 2G network service, affecting some customers

T-Mobile is shutting down its 2G GSM cellular network, which launched in 1991, according to a recent update on its website.

The network will officially retire on Aug. 3, affecting customers who use older devices that rely on this service. They will be forced to upgrade to newer ones before the change takes place.

In a statement to Fierce Network, a T-Mobile spokesperson noted that the carrier has given these customers more time to switch to newer devices than its competitors.

"T-Mobile retained GSM longer than other carriers to give customers and partners additional time to migrate legacy devices," said the spokesperson. "Other carriers shut down their GSM networks earlier, and T-Mobile helped fill that gap by maintaining support while customers transitioned to newer technologies."

T-Mobile is indeed the last of the Big 3 carriers to discontinue 2G, as AT&T ended this service in 2017 and Verizon did so in 2020.

In an interview with Fierce Network, T-Mobile Chief Network Officer Ankur Kapoor said that while the company hung onto its 2G network to give customers sufficient time to transition to newer devices, it also retained it longer due to international tourists.

He said that some customers traveling to the U.S. from other countries did not have VoLTE enabled on their devices, which is a technology that switches phone calls to a 4G network.

Instead, these tourists had LTE data, but they required circuit-switching (CS) for voice calling, which 2G and 3G networks rely on.

More T-Mobile News:

T-Mobile collaborated with most global carriers over the last two and a half years to ensure these customers don't lose service; however, Kapoor said they're now at a point where "nobody would lose any kind of service, either from a voice or data perspective."

"That's why we're shutting it down," he said.

He emphasized that the remaining 2G user base is "de minimis" and consists mainly of legacy IoT devices.

In a statement to TheStreet, RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino said that T-Mobile's decision to shut down its 2G network is "long-overdue housecleaning" that will save the company money.

"The reality is that maintaining an entirely separate infrastructure for a tiny handful of devices is incredibly expensive and inefficient," said Miserandino. "By finally turning off the lights on 2G, they can repurpose that valuable wireless spectrum to beef up their modern 5G network where the actual consumer demand is."

The move from T-Mobile comes after it retired Sprint's 3G and LTE networks in 2022. T-Mobile also discontinued its own 3G UMTS network that same year.

T-Mobile's latest move reflects shifting network qualityexpectations

T-Mobile is shutting down its 2G network during a time when demand for seamless network quality is high, as consumers use their devices for functions that extend beyond texting and calling.

According to a recent J.D. Power survey, T-Mobile is neck and neck with Verizon in consumer network quality rankings across multiple U.S. regions.

T-Mobile is retiring its 2G network, forcing some customers to upgrade their devices.

Shutterstock

How U.S. wireless carriers rank in network quality performance:

Mid-Atlantic region: T-Mobile and Verizon rank highest in network quality, with consumers reporting only experiencing 8 problems per 100 mobile device interactions (PP100) for both companies. AT&T fell behind with a score of 9 PP100.
North Centralregion: Verizon scored the highest at 6 PP100, followed by UScellular at 7 PP100, and T-Mobile ranked third at 8 PP100.
Northeast region: T-Mobile and Verizon tied at 9 PP100. AT&T trailed behind with an 11 PP100 score.
Southeast region: T-Mobile topped rankings with an 8 PP100 score, while AT&T and Verizon tied at second place with 9 PP100.
Southwest region: T-Mobile scored first place with 8 PP100. Verizon ranks second with 9 PP100, and AT&T landed at third with 10 PP100.
West region: T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless tied again in first place with 9 PP100, while AT&T lags with 10 PP100.

Source: J.D. Power

"Despite generational differences in the types of problems experienced, one thing is clear: wireless network quality is strong," said Carl Lepper, senior director of technology, media and telecom at J.D. Power, in a press release.

"Younger consumers continue to push network limits through streaming and video calls, yet the industry has responded with resilience," he continued. "Major carriers are delivering consistent performance, keeping the average overall problems per 100 uses steady at or below 9 over the past year."

The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.

This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 3:33 AM.