What's confirmed as of July 2026
- Movistar began shutting down its 3G network in 2026 and publicly targets completing the 2G and 3G shutdown by the end of 2027, keeping 2G alive in the meantime as a lifeline for alarms and legacy telemetry.
- MasOrange has already run shutdown pilots in Zamora and Roquetas de Mar and talks about aligning toward 2030. Vodafone switched off 3G in 2022–2023 and keeps 2G running with no firm date announced.
- Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation closed a public consultation in January 2026 to coordinate the phase-out and free the 900 and 2100 MHz bands. A national plan is in motion; there is no single national date yet.
- In June 2026 the European Commission asked member states to preserve 2G/3G until at least 2030, because some 64 million vehicles depend on eCall over those networks. And in Spain, roughly half a million connected elevators still ride on 2G, dragging the shutdown.
Are your devices affected?
They are if the modem only speaks 2G (GSM/GPRS/EDGE), or if it relies on 3G for data with 2G fallback. Three ways to check:
- By module. Look up the model in the device datasheet. Widely deployed 2G-only families: SIMCom SIM800/SIM900, Quectel M66/M95, u-blox SARA-G3, Telit GL865. If your device carries one of these, it has an expiry date.
- By IMEI. The TAC (the IMEI's first 8 digits) identifies the type-approved model; with an IMEI inventory you can separate 2G-only hardware by batch. Our free IMEI checker helps you clean and break down the list.
- By network behaviour. In your SIM provider's portal, filter by the radio access technology of the last session. Anything registering GSM/GPRS only is an immediate candidate.
The sectors with the largest installed 2G base in Spain: grade 2/3 alarms with GSM communicators, elevators (EN 81-28 emergency phone), legacy fleet GPS trackers, meters and telemetry, and first-generation POS terminals.
The 5-step protection plan
- 1. Inventory now. List by ICCID, IMEI, module model, location and usage. Cross it against each operator's timeline. Without an inventory there is no plan: whatever isn't on the list is what wakes you up at 3:00 on a Monday.
- 2. Pick the target radio. LTE-M if there's mobility or lift-phone voice; NB-IoT for static, low-power devices; Cat-1 bis as the cheap generalist with universal 4G coverage. We keep a full LTE-M vs NB-IoT comparison to decide per use case.
- 3. Pilot with a multi-carrier SIM. Before buying 5,000 modems, validate real LTE-M/NB-IoT coverage at your sites with a handful of devices. A SIM that switches between Movistar, Vodafone and Orange removes the "what if my operator switches off first?" variable: the device uses whichever network is still on.
- 4. Plan the rollout against 2027, not 2030. With thousands of units in the field, physical replacement takes quarters: hardware lead times, site visits, maintenance windows. Work backwards from the end of 2027 and your real window is about 18 months.
- 5. Stop installing 2G-only hardware. It sounds obvious, yet new GPRS hardware is still being installed in 2026 because it's cheaper. Every 2G unit you install today is a site visit you'll pay for twice.
What happens if you do nothing
2G devices don't warn you: they lose network intermittently first (refarming), and one day they never register again. For an alarm that's a security failure; for an elevator, an EN 81-28 compliance breach; for a tracker fleet, operational blindness. Emergency remediation costs 5 to 20 times more than a planned migration, because you're paying for urgency, not logistics.
If you want to validate LTE-M/NB-IoT coverage at your sites before deciding, the multi-carrier SIM test kit costs €15 and ships in 24–48 h. And if you run a large fleet and would rather go through the inventory together, write to us — we do this daily.