The network the region actually has

The main markets of Latin America have no mandatory national date for switching off 2G or 3G.

Where retirements have been announced, they are decided by each operator, not by a national rule.

What the markets the region is compared with have done

In Germany, the operators switched off 3G in 2021. For 2G, the three operators announced its retirement in 2028: one around 30 June, another at the end of September and the third at the end of that year. Only in exceptional cases of critical internet of things applications will the network remain in operation until the end of 2030. The German regulator assigns frequencies on a technology- and service-neutral basis: the dates are not its mandate but announcements by the operators that it records. German 2G coverage exceeds 99% of the territory.

In Japan, NTT Docomo ended its FOMA 3G service and i-mode on 31 March 2026. In Australia, the regulator records the 3G switch-off by the two main operators from 28 October 2024. In the United Kingdom, the December 2021 agreement between government and industry commits the four operators to retire 2G and 3G by 2033 at the latest; 3G was retired between 2024 and 2025, and there is no common timetable for 2G. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission documents the 3G switch-off by the three major operators between February and December 2022, and recorded, as at October 2022, that one of them had not announced a date for its 2G.

Outside the region, the pattern differs from what is usually assumed. The dates are announced by the operators, not set by a national mandate; 3G was retired first, and 2G was left until last, in some cases without a date.

What is happening in the region

Latin America retains both generations, and it does so for a legal reason.

Colombia's Communications Regulation Commission set this out in writing in January 2025, in response to a request for information: the decision rests with each operator, in accordance with the principle of technology neutrality in Article 2 of Ley 1341 de 2009. There is no national date or deadline. What does exist is the obligation, set out in Article 5.1.1.3.8 of Resolución CRC 5050 de 2016, to notify the user at least six months in advance when the migration leaves without service a device that operates only on the network being switched off. It is a user protection, not a switch-off timetable.

In Brazil, the regulator acted on terminals, not on the network: since 6 April 2025 it certifies only telephones with LTE or a higher technology. The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) made clear that the measure does not signal the switch-off of the 2G and 3G networks, and that the transition is defined by the mobile service providers.

In Chile, an operator announced in 2023 the gradual retirement of its 2G network. The regulator did not set a national date: it required the companies to submit a plan with mitigation measures for users and announced that it would monitor that no locality was left without connectivity. According to the press, some one hundred localities would retain 2G for as long as they had no other technology.

In Costa Rica, according to the specialist press reporting a statement by the state-owned operator, the gradual 2G switch-off was due to begin on 1 July 2024 and conclude on 31 December of that year. The switch-off did not begin on the planned date. In Mexico, according to the specialist press, an operator submitted to the regulator its intention to retire the 2G network and confirmed the switch-off for 1 January 2021: there, too, the decision was the operator's.

The size of what remains

32.4 million

In Brazil, according to the same official Anatel measurement, 5G already accounts for 23.9% of accesses, almost a quarter. Even so, the country retains thirty-two million accesses on the two generations prior to LTE, and it is that absolute figure that weighs in the design.

What ATC measures in production

In a national mobile network in South America, between October 2025 and July 2026, ATC measured that 85% of the sustained load corresponded to the generations prior to LTE and the remaining 15% to LTE. Over the same period, LTE traffic recorded relative growth of 20%, associated with the introduction of 5G in that network: its 5G deployment relies on the LTE core, so its queries reach the platform through the LTE Diameter interface. The figure corresponds to the sustained load (average from 12:00 to 15:00) of that network.

Composition of sustained load by generation

Generations prior to LTE versus LTE

Nor does the measurement express capacity. The transaction volume of a network depends on the country and on the operator's customer base: the larger the base, the more transactions per second. That is why the platform's capacity has no fixed ceiling: it grows with the operator's number of customers and with the size of the country. What this measurement contributes is the composition, not the volume.

Why this is an architectural requirement and not background information

A platform that governs device identity has to answer queries from every generation coexisting in the network, at the same time and with the same status. The answer must be identical whichever interface the query arrives through, because the regulatory obligation is the same.

Added to this is a detail that is often overlooked: in 5G, the equipment identity register function (5G-EIR) is defined as an optional function in the standard (3GPP TS 23.501, clause 6.2.15). A standalone 5G core can operate without querying it. Where commercial standalone 5G already exists, identity control is not guaranteed by the standard: it has to be explicitly required.

A platform designed for the device base the region will have in ten years does not serve the one it has today. And the current base has no retirement date set by regulation.

Processing takes place on the infrastructure the operator defines, so that critical signalling data remain under its control and under the jurisdiction it determines.