One of UK's biggest mobile networks is shutting service TOMORROW leaving some Brits with NO internet
Those affected won't be able to use the internet when they're out and about unless they upgrade their phone.
1
O2 is the last of the big networks to shut down its 3G
Credit: Alamy
O2 has been pressing on with plans to shut down its old 3G network technology.
The other main networks - EE, Vodafone and Three - have already got rid of theirs, as part of a joint agreement made with the Government in 2021.
O2's 3G switch off has already gone ahead in Durham, Norwich, Telford and Guildford.
But now Torquay is the next spot to lose 3G.
The move not only affects O2, but also other firms that run off its masts, including Giffgaff, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile.
For most customers it won't make any difference - if anything it'll make space for more faster 4G and 5G kit.
But some older smartphones may not be 4G or 5G compatible.
While they'll still be able to make calls and send texts, they no longer get access to data.
Virgin Media O2's 3G network carries less than 2 per cent of all network data now.
The operator is already writing directly to all customers currently without a 4G or 5G handset, offering free compatible devices for known vulnerable customers and discounts on new handsets for all others.
O2 Ends Pay-As-You-Go Data and iPad SIM Services: What You Need to Know
Bosses have also announced that they're working with charity Age UK to help raise awareness and support.
"The 3G switch-off may feel daunting for many older people so it's important that we do all we can to support those affected," said Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK.
'We're very grateful for this funding from Virgin Media O2 as this will enhance our services, including our Advice Line, so that older customers can get the help needed when 3G is switched off.
'It's important to note that for those using a 3G network who don't wish to change their handset, for now they will still be able to make phone calls and send texts as they do today – it's just their mobile data this change will affect.
'Anyone who is feeling worried and would like some support can get in touch with their provider to find out more about their options and make sure they are ready for the change, or they can call Age UK's Advice Line for free on 0800 169 65 65."
Which mobile networks are affected by the 3G switch off?
Mobile networks affected by O2's 3G switch off:
-O2
- Tesco Mobile
- Sky Mobile
- GiffGaff
Networks which have already switched off 3G:
- Vodafone
- Asda Mobile
- Lebara
- Talk Mobile
- Voxi
- EE
- 1pMobile
- Ecotalk
- IQ Mobile
- Lycamobile
- Mozillion
- RWG Mobile
- Spusi
- Talk Home
- Utility Warehouse
- Your Co-op
- Three
- iD Mobile, Smarty
- Honest Mobile
- Superdrug
How to check if your device is affected
Smartphones bought in the last 10 years are unlikely to be affected by the switch off.
However, if you are still unsure, you can do a simple trick to check.
Click on the settings page on your phone and search for Network Mode or Preferred Network.
If you spot 4G or 5G listed, then you will be unaffected by the switch off.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Apple student deal: Free AirPods 4 with Mac or iPad, plus £150+ savings
A customer wears an Apple AirPod. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images | Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. Apple has launched a huge back-to-school giveaway for students – including free AirPods 4, £50 AirPods Pro 2 and big savings on MacBooks and iPads. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Apple is giving away AirPods 4 free to students who buy a discounted Apple Mac or iPad and it is also giving away AirPods Pro2 for just £50 as part of a massive student giveaway. The offer is available to any student and offers savings of up to £150 on brand new Apple accessories. The Apple Education Store discounts are only available for iPads, Apple Macs and MacBooks. Unfortunately they do not discount Apple TV or the latest Apple iPhones as they are not viewed as educational accessories. The full list of discounts includes: £20 off an iPad (A16) priced at £309 £50 off an iPad mini (A17 Pro) at £449 £50 off an iPad Air at £749 £100 off a 13.6-inch MacBook Air at £899 £100 off a 15-inch MacBook Air at £1,099 £100 off a 14-inch MacBook Pro at £1,499 £200 off a 16-inch MacBook Pro at £2,229 There are also discounts on Mac minis and Mac Studio for any student in university and it comes with a selection of freebies too. Apple is giving away AirPods 4 with any of the above deals, which is a saving of £179 on the normal price for the high end headphones. If students do not want the AirPods 4 they can choose a Magic Mouse worth £100, a Magic Trackpad worth £149, or a Magic Keyboard worth £199. The Air Pods Pro 2 cost just £50 when you buy a MacBook or £100 if you buy an iPad as part of the student deal. While phones are not included in the deal there are discounts available on the latest iPhone models. The iPhone 16 costs as little as £24 a month with Sky Mobile and that is the cheapest way to own a new iPhone. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is the best-selling phone in the iPhone range. The flagship phone comes with a high-end 12MP 4K front camera, Apple's clever artificial intelligence, and an ultra-fast processor for streaming, video and photo editing and gaming on the go. The Pro Max costs from £37 a month from Sky Mobile and that is the cheapest deal on the market for students who want the latest phone. A new iPhone, the 17, will arrive in September and students can hold out for an iPhone 16 deal when the new phones launches. Prices will typically drop when a new model arrives and that means September could be a good time to upgrade a phone. Get six months of Amazon Prime Student free – then just £4.49 a month £ 0.00 Buy now Buy now Amazon Prime Student is one of the best-value perks available to anyone in full-time higher education. You get a six-month trial completely free, with all the benefits of Prime - including unlimited one-day delivery, Prime Video, Amazon Music Prime and exclusive student discounts on everything from textbooks to tech. After the trial, you'll pay just £4.49 a month or £47.49 a year for as long as you remain a student. There's no catch and no long-term tie-in - just serious savings when you need them most. Click here to start your free six month Prime Student Trial Hello Fresh HelloFresh: Fuss-free recipe boxes ideal for students living away from home Best For Stress-free meal planning with great new-customer perks £ 2.62 Hello Fresh Buy now Buy now Pros: Super convenient and easy to customise Cons: Standard pricing rises after the first month HelloFresh is one of the most popular meal kits for a reason — and it's especially handy for students trying to stay on top of busy schedules, new routines and limited fridge space. The app makes it easy to plan ahead or pause a week, and the pre-portioned ingredients mean there's very little waste. Recipes are student-friendly (think burgers, pasta, noodle bowls) and the instructions are foolproof. You can get meals for as little as £2.62 per portion on the starter plan, and that includes free delivery and dessert for life if you sign up now. Long term, prices creep up a bit — but the convenience and variety (including veggie, calorie smart and flexitarian options) are hard to beat. 👉 Try HelloFresh with 50% off + free dessert for life
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
O2, Three and iD Mobile most complained-about mobile providers
TalkTalk attracted the most complaints from broadband consumers and O2, Three and iD Mobile were the most complained-about mobile providers over the last quarter, latest Ofcom figures show. Plusnet generated the fewest complaints among broadband providers, while EE, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone were the least complained-about mobile providers, the regulator said. Ofcom publishes figures for complaints it receives about the UK's main landline, mobile broadband and pay-TV providers every quarter. It said O2's broadband customers mainly complained about how their grievances were handled, while Three customers were most often concerned about billing, pricing and charges. EE and TalkTalk were the most complained-about landline providers, while Utility Warehouse generated the fewest complaints. Virgin Media was the pay-TV provider that generated the most complaints, while Sky and TalkTalk customers were the happiest with their service. The figures cover complaints received by Ofcom from January to March. They remained similar to the previous quarter, but complaints about fixed broadband and pay-TV increased, the regulator said. Ofcom said it compiled and published the figures to help consumers see how their providers performed in relation to others, and to help them choose a new provider if they were thinking of switching. An Ofcom spokeswoman said: 'It's positive to see stable complaints numbers overall, which have come down over time. 'But this doesn't mean telecoms companies can sit back when it comes to customer service. Some providers have seen complaints about them increase, so we want to see further improvements.'
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
Must-have tech that'll keep kids entertained this summer WITHOUT an iPad & boredom buster games that won't cost a penny
All recommendations within this article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click on a link in this story we may earn affiliate revenue. My games console alternative is less than HALF the price of Sony's new PlayStation, says The Sun's tech editor Sean Keach FREE-SY DOES IT Must-have tech that'll keep kids entertained this summer WITHOUT an iPad & boredom buster games that won't cost a penny Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IT'S no secret that a tablet will keep a kid entertained for hours – but there are loads of other tech-y options out there for children and teens. If you want something that isn't just an Apple iPad, try out these brilliant toys, fun free apps and games, and even some gadgets that you'll want to use just as much as your child. You'll even save hundreds versus buying a posh tablet. 12 The Sphero Mini is a robotic ball that you can control (and program) using a phone app Credit: Sphero / Amazon 12 It'll whiz around your floor – great fun, but try not to trip over it! Credit: Sphero / Amazon 12 The Toniebox is another top gadget for kids – and they won't need to touch a screen Credit: Toniebox Sphero Mini – £50 First up is the Sphero Mini, which is a robotic ball. It's currently available on Amazon for about £50 and you can race it around the floor at lightning speed using a phone app as the remote control. Sphero Mini, £51.55 Even if that's all this did, it would be great fun. I've used Sphero balls and they're very easy to control if you just want to roll around – but you can go much deeper. But you can use the robotic ball and the app's Blocks mode to learn to code. So if you have a computer whiz at home, this is a great option. You can give the robot commands (assigned by dragging and dropping from preset code) that it can carry out. You can even go further with Sphero's official education software, which lets you properly program the ball. Toniebox – £77 For younger kids, look no further than the Toniebox. This fun mini-speaker has earned rave reviews for entertaining (and educating) kids without any screens. The idea is that you buy little figurines called Tonies, and place them on top of the box. Different Tonies have their own audio – like unique stories and songs – that get downloaded to the Toniebox so you can play it through the speaker. So to get more content, you're meant to collect Tonies. There are more than 200, so you won't run out anytime soon. Toniebox, £76.99 The Toniebox itself is £77, and then you'll bag some Tonies separately. For instance, there's a Paddington Bear Tonie loaded with audiobooks that costs £15 – or you could grab The Tiger Who Came To Tea. There's even a Disney collection of Tonies featuring the Lion King, Aladdin, Jungle Book and more. You can also get some free Tonies content. Google Gemini – FREE OK, this one will need a phone or tablet – but it's brilliant fun, is very interactive, and you don't actually need to stare at the screen. 12 Gemini Live is a special Google Gemini feature that lets you have conversations out loud with a chatbot 12 You can download Google Gemini for free on your iPhone or Android Credit: Google / Apple / The Sun And you can do it together, which makes it even better. If your youngster is older than 13, they're allowed to use a feature called Google Gemini. It's Google's official chatbot, which you'd normally type to. But it also has a free feature called Gemini Live for out-loud conversations. Gemini will speak to you just like a real person would, and you can answer back in real time or even interrupt. One great way to use this feature is to create your own choose-your-own-adventure or Dungeons & Dragons-style game. Part of the fun can be setting up the game. You can ask Gemini to run the game, tell it what sort of story you'd like and the character you'd like to play, and that it should be age-appropriate. Then you can start playing, with Gemini setting the scene and you telling the chatbot what you'd like your character to do next. You could play alone or as a family (just ask Gemini to take it in turns with the different characters) for hours. And because it's all being created in the moment, based on your own ideas, every game will be different. And you don't need any gear – just a phone or tablet, and you're good to go. Lego Technic and Lego Powered Up – £55 Obviously, kids love Lego. I'm not here to tell you that. But it's easy to forget that Lego isn't just those eye-catching Harry Potter, Marvel, and Peppa Pig sets. You can grab something that is a little more educational – and potentially create a budding engineer in your own home. Then, when they're older, they'll rake in a giant salary designing bridges on the Moon, remember your thoughtful Lego gift that started it all, and buy you a bungalow near a beach as thanks. Hopefully. There are two great ranges that you want to look at. The first is Lego Technic, which has moving parts and more complicated designs. Several models are rated fine for nine and ten-year-olds. There's even a Ferrari for £55 that'll easily keep car fanatics busy. 12 The Lego Ferrari is made up of nearly 900 pieces, so it'll take a while to put together Credit: Lego Lego Technic Ferrari FXX K, £54.89 If you want to get even fancier, there's the Lego Powered Up series. These are motorised products that let you bring your creations to life: think cars, trains, and cranes. Does that sound like a clutter nightmare? One savvy way around this is to bag something from Lego's non-tech Botanicals range instead. 12 Lego Botanicals are aimed at adults (hence the 18+ branding) but they're simple to build, even for kids, and you can make them together Credit: Sean Keach These are pretty sets of Lego flowers that your child can build, and won't look naff on the windowsill. They're happy and engaged, and you end up with a lovely ornament. Everyone's a winner. The best part? There are loads that won't break the bank. You can buy cherry blossoms from Boots for £13, orchids at The Entertainer for £19, and a wildflower bouquet at Tesco for £15 at current pricing. Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World – £429 Arguably the must-have gadget right now: the Nintendo Switch 2. 12 The Nintendo Switch 2 is this year's big console – and it'll be a hit with the kids over summer Credit: Nintendo It's the new Nintendo console, now just a few months old. The blockbuster launch title is Mario Kart World, an immensely fun racing game that almost needs no introduction. It's brilliant and easy to pick up, even if you're new to gaming. The bundle with the console and game comes to £429. I also recently tried out Super Mario Party Jamboree, which is another great multiplayer option. This is a gadget for the whole family – not just your child. FREE GAMES GALORE! Want to enjoy some games without paying extra? You might find you're already owed some freebies... For a start, your Netflix subscription includes free games. Some of them can be played on the TV with your phone working as the controller. And others can be downloaded for free on your mobile phone or tablet. Sky TV also includes loads of child-friendly free games. Just look for the Games by app and you'll be able to unlock hours of fun. Third, Amazon Prime subscribers can get free games in two ways. The first is through Prime Gaming, which gives you a rolling monthly roster of free games to unlock and keep. And the second is Amazon Luna, which is a cloud gaming service. This lets you stream top-tier games to your TV without a console – a bit like Netflix, but for gaming. Normally it would cost you £8.99 a month for Luna+, but Prime members get access to a rolling selection of games for free – including Fortnite. Just download the Luna app on your Fire TV or Fire Stick, or LG or Samsung telly. Then you can connect a Bluetooth gaming controller and away you go. Picture Credit: Netflix / The Sun The Nintendo Switch 2 is a brilliant pick because it's so versatile. You can plug it into your TV, sure, but you can also undock it and carry it around as a portable gaming machine. And it also has a kickstand. So if you're on a train or aeroplane, you can plonk it down on the tray table, and play together – you just each need to grab one of the two Joy-Con controllers attached to the side of the machine. Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World, £429.99 12 You can grab the Joy-Cons and use them for multiplayer gaming if the Nintendo Switch 2 is on its kickstand (or connected to the TV) Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun 12 Mario Kart World is fun for all the family – and has a new mode where you can explore the vast world between the race courses Credit: Nintendo Just keep the volume down if you're playing in public! Meta Quest 3 – £279 Virtual reality headsets were once enormously expensive. Not only that, you previously needed to plug them into a similarly costly gaming PC. Ouch. Now? They're not so bad at all. In fact, there's a brilliant one that's cheaper than most consoles. It's called the Meta Quest 3S, and it costs £289. That's less than most consoles. It's cheaper than the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Xbox Series X. You could buy two of them and have money to spare versus a £700 PS5 Pro. 12 The Meta Quest 3S immerses you in virtual worlds – with handheld controllers that let you interact as if it was real Credit: Meta This headset lets you step into imaginary worlds, play virtual reality computer games, visit far-off places and more. You can roleplay as Batman, slash and dance your way to rhythm-action glory in Beat Saber, and play shockingly realistic table tennis or golf without leaving your living room. Unless you have two headsets, the person playing is mostly isolated – but you can beam their view to the TV to get everyone involved. It's incredibly cheap for what you get. 12 The Sun's tech editor Sean Keach testing out the Meta Quest 3S last year at Meta HQ in Silicon Valley Credit: Sean Keach / The Sun The only catch? Meta recommends that the headset only be used by those aged 10 and up, so this isn't for very young children. Meta Quest 3S, £289 Meta offers guidance for parents on how to manage play sessions, so it's worth following the safety advice on the Meta Quest 3S website. All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed. Always do your own research before making any purchase.
