An emergency call button in a desperately quiet elevator. An alarm incapable of notifying the security services. An ineffective telecare bracelet in the event of a fall of a dependent person. Are these incidents likely to increase with the announced shutdown of 2G and 3G mobile networks?
Orange will be the first to turn off its 2G, at the end of 2025. It will be followed, a year later, by SFR and Bouygues Telecom. In 2028 and 2029, all three operators will eliminate 3G. Free mobile services will also be affected, since Xavier Niel’s group – individual shareholder of the Le Monde group – has used Orange 2G since its creation in 2012.
Despite the rollout of 4G and 5G, millions of devices still run on older technologies. The federations of telecare (French Telecare Association, Afrata), of elevators (Elevator Federation, FAS), of electrical solutions for buildings (Industries of electrical and digital solutions for construction, Ignes) and of telesecurity (Professional group of professions of electronic security, GPMSE) estimate that 7.8 million devices are connected in 2G and 3G, including 4 million in 2G. “This reality was not taken into account by the operators”laments Brice Brandenburg, head of public affairs at Ignes.
An “unknown” cost
Orange has warned of the end of 2G in January 2022, four years before the definitive closure. But, according to alarm, elevator and remote assistance professionals, this period is too short to migrate to 4G-5G. Between the development of the equipment, its certification, the start-up of the production line and its installation, they believe that they should have been warned six or seven years before the fateful date.
“All manufacturers are in favor of this technological transition, but they want to have time to achieve it with sustainable technologies, in conditions that guarantee continuity of service and maintenance of user safety”insists Alain Béal, vice president of the GPMSE. Even if the project is carried out at full speed, this federation estimates that 700,000 remote monitoring systems could not be updated in time, out of a fleet of 2.1 million devices.
The cost of this technological change is not completely foreign to the anger of these professionals. They estimate it at several hundred million euros. In the case of alarms alone, the figure could rise to 70 million. A bill that will end up on the tables of building owners, especially large social landlords. “The cost is not yet known and has not been provisioned”It worries Nicolas Blanchard, head of engineering at CDC Habitat, a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts that manages 560,000 homes in France.
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