End of 3G connectivity in the USA

Many of our IMETRIK customers have been buying 3G and 3.5G tracking devices since 2011 and are continuing to use them today. This has been a very long run for this technology in the tracking industry. IMETRIK stopped selling their 3G and 3.5G devices in October 2020, but has continued to support this technology. In October 2020, IMETRIK started to market their 4G trackers that will coexist with new 5G networks.

IMETRIK uses AT&T and T-Mobile to enable their older 3G and 3.5G tracking devices to communicate over the cellular network. Both these carriers have established dates that they will officially shut down their 3G and 3.5G networks. AT&T (February 2022) and T-Mobile (July 2022).

These official 3G sunset dates have passed. Currently, AT&T is completely down. T-Mobile is still active, but we expect it to stop working in the coming days. Once T-Mobile shuts down, all IMETRIK 3G and 3.5G devices will no longer work. We continue to monitor the network daily. Your IMETRIK 3G and 3.5G devices can be identified by their serial numbers that start with either a V or F.

IMETRIK has been informing customers with a notice on the dashboard since May of 2021 of the specific dates that AT&T (February 2022) and T-Mobile (July 2022) had set for taking down the 3G network. Also, any user that attempted to install a 3G device since that date were shown a pop-up containing the 3G obsolescence disclosure statement that needed to be acknowledged in order to use the device.

We understand some of our customers may not frequent the IMETRIK Dashboard where many of our communications take place, so we are sending this email to all IMETRIK account users to increase full awareness of the 3G sunset in the USA.

We will continue to market our 4G trackers which will coexist with 5G. We are confident that you will be able to use our 4G devices for many, many years to come.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your IMETRIK representative if you have any questions.

4G connectivity in the USA

We are watching closely how the 3G sunset may impact our 4G devices. Both AT&T and T-Mobile used the core of the 3G network to send SMS messages over the 4G network. AT&T had converted over the process a while ago so that all SMS used the 4G network. And we did not see any negative impact to our 4G devices when AT&T shutdown their 3G network.

T-Mobile began testing this process in January of 2022, and they asked IMETRIK to help them test their updated system. By April 2022, after working out some bugs, T-Mobile's efforts to bring SMS from 3G core to the 4G core was completed.

We should not see any impact with our 4G devices when T-Mobile completely cuts off the 3G network. With that said, we will still be watching closely, and report to you any negative changes we see.