PSA: Next phase of Canada’s 3G shutdown starts later this month

The next phase of the ongoing 3G shutdown in Canada is coming at the end of the month.

Canadian carriers have been slowly shutting down their old 3G networks and pushing customers to upgrade to newer devices that will work on 4G and 5G for over a year now, though the process has been far from smooth. Now, the shutdown is coming to Manitoba.

We previously reported that starting Dec. 31, Bell and Telus would shut down their 3G networks in Manitoba, but the impact isn’t limited to those carriers. The shutdown will also affect the duo’s respective flanker brands, including Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile, Koodo, and Public Mobile.

Freedom Mobile confirmed the shutdown will impact its Manitoba customers as well in an update on its 3G shutdown support page.

If you haven’t been following along with the 3G shutdown saga, there are a few things you need to know. First, the shutdown will cause people with some phones to lose access to voice, messaging, and/or data services. People with an older, 3G-only device will be affected, but so will some people with 4G phones.

The reason why some 4G phones will be impacted is because of voice over LTE (VoLTE). 4G devices that don’t support VoLTE, which enables voice services over 4G LTE networks, will fall back to 3G for voice services, but the shutdown means those devices won’t have a network to fall back to.

Unfortunately, this is also causing significant confusion for Canadians for several reasons. Most carriers offer tools to check whether a phone is compatible, but these tools are unfortunately not the most reliable. Moreover, many Canadians have devices that support VoLTE, but aren’t certified by Canadian carriers, leaving them in a grey area where the 3G shutdown may impact them despite having a technically compatible device. For example, many Canadians with OnePlus phones, and hundreds of other devices experienced issues during the Rogers shutdown earlier this year.

The best thing you can do right now is verify whether your current phone is compatible with VoLTE and, more specifically, Canadian carriers’ VoLTE. You can use the below tools and resources to check, depending on your carrier:

• Bell (and flanker brands)
• Telus (and flanker brands)
• Freedom Mobile
• Fizz Mobile
• Videotron

If your device isn’t compatible, there are a couple of things you can do. Some people with VoLTE-capable devices that aren’t supported by Canadian carriers have had luck forcing VoLTE on, but unfortunately, your mileage may vary with this, and it’s not a guaranteed long-term solution. The other option, unfortunately, is to buy a new phone that is compatible (the easiest way to determine what’s compatible is to see which phones Canadian carriers actually sell — those are all certified, even if you don’t buy it directly from a Canadian carrier).

Now is a decent time to buy a new phone, since many providers have deals on. However, in many cases, it’s actually cheaper to buy a phone outright and get a cheap bring-your-own-device plan, so make sure to double-check the math before you buy.