I just saw that Vodafone (Edit: I know there’s a general plan for this from a lot of providers) is turning off all 3G by the end of 2023, despite there not being 5G coverage in all places, and only new phones being 5G ready. I don’t have a brand new phone, I can’t afford one and I’m not even a poor person. And even now I often have to use 3G over 4G because of signal strength. So yeah, by the end of this year I’m going to either have to upgrade (even though there’s no 5G here anyway), or risk being disconnected in the digital age. And I know for a fact a lot of older and/or poorer people will be affected by this too.
What other ‘advances’ can you think that are like this?
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Part of the reason Vodafone are turning off 3G is so they can repurpose the spectrum to carry 4G & 5G because it has far better coverage. It’s one of the ways they’ll improve signal strength and coverage, and other networks will probably follow shortly. 5G is still not that widespread so you should be fine on 4G for a while, as you say there’s no need to upgrade to 5G especially if it isn’t in your area. Also they’re not removing 2G, so for people who don’t need much data, they’ll still have coverage for calls & texts.
The long-promoted myth that bigger population = greater prosperity.
Does 3G even work? Whenever my phone defaults to it in a low reception area, I get nothing
When diesel was going to save the world so they got everyone to bin off their cars and buy diesel ones, and then it turned out they’re crap as well, but in different ways.
Brekkers obviously
Large out of town shopping centres like Merry Hill, the Trafford Centre and the Metro Centre. These places have a ludicrous amount of parking which is extremely inefficient land use and inside, they generally have a very artificial and over the top vibe, partly because they are so vast and have ridiculous decor.
Getting rid of landlines altogether. Storm Arwen taught us that when there’s no power, an analogue phone still works.
O2 keeps turning off my 4G. I dream of 5G.
Disposable Vapes.
Yes, on the face of it, lots less carcinogens/second hand smoke/tar etc
However, due to all the sweet smelling and tasting flavours you get they’re attracting a whole new, young demographic to ‘smoking’ without all the necesary long term information!
And then there’s the disposing of the vapes and batteries that can be done in as little as a few hours…
FYI, I was an smoker who switched to vaping then gave up!
Services which were previously face to face became face to face, online and telephone. All branded as digitalization etc. Then during lockdown they became telephone and online. Now after lockdown they are still only functioning as telephone and online.
My local council is an example. Customer center was closed in 2020 and they never bothered reopening it. It’s phone, website or nothing now.