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Isn't that simply fixed by shutting down the old 2G and 3G networks, like is happening in a lot of countries now?
by kristofferR 11mo ago
Isn't that simply fixed by shutting down the old 2G and 3G networks, like is happening in a lot of countries now?
- supertrope 11mo agoNo. SS7 predates cellphones. It's the legacy control plane for the PSTN (public switched telephone network). It was never designed for security since it originally never crossed corporate boundaries as everyone had to use the monopoly provider. (Except for international calls).
- kristofferR 11mo agoI admittedly don't know that much about it, but the googling I did indicated the SS7 is only active when you roam/call to legacy networks with 2G/3G that aren't all-IP?
- supertrope 11mo agoEven when the phones on both ends use IP calling technology, the interconnection between phone companies is usually not IP.
- kristofferR 11mo agoFrom what I've read that tends to change when the phone companies in question have shut off 2G and 3G though. The only reason to keep using SS7 is for intercompatibility with legacy networks who still have 2G or 3G devices on them.
- alerighi 11mo agoYou can't shut down 2G, because there are a lot of devices, mainly embedded systems like alarms, lift emergency call button, GPS trackers, etc. that still use 2G. Also 2G is the only reliable network connection in a lot of areas that are not otherwise reached by 3G/4G/5G, mainly because a 2G connection is more tolerant to low signal and noise, and also is low frequency, thus 2G is the only option available in situations such as on top of mountains and stuff. And finally there is still a lot of people, maybe elders, that don't have/want a smartphone (mainly because they are more complex to use etc.) and still use an old Nokia with 2G networks (they only need to call or send SMS in the end). Also: VoLTE is not a thing since a lot of years, and probably there are even a ton of smartphones out there that does not support it (and thus switch back to 2G/3G to place voice calls).
- Hendrikto 11mo agoYou claim that they cannot be disabled, while this is already happening [0][1][2]. Some countries, like Switzerland, already completed the shutdown years ago [2]. [0]: https://newsroom.vodafone.de/2g-abschaltung-macht-lte-und-5g-mobilfunk-netz-noch-besser https://newsroom.vodafone.de/2g-abschaltung-macht-lte-und-5g... [1]: https://www.telekom.de/hilfe/2g-abschaltung https://www.telekom.de/hilfe/2g-abschaltung [2]: https://www.rosenberger-telematics.com/en/news/switching-off-the-2g-network/ https://www.rosenberger-telematics.com/en/news/switching-off...
- alerighi 11mo agoIt's easy to make the switch in a rich country with less than 10 millions of inhabitants, mostly living in big cities.
- Hendrikto 11mo agoCheck out reference 2. This is being done across the whole of Europe. It has already been done in Australia.
- kristofferR 11mo agoIt's the same "we can't introduce chip-and-pin because of all the credit card readers" argument that kept carding an issue a decade longer in the US than in the EU.
- aryonoco 11mo agoI can tell you that here in Australia we shut down 2G in 2011 and 3G in 2022-2023. And yes many things broke, train ticket vending machines stopped working, smart meters stopped working, etc. But then the got replaced. 2G and 3G is a horrible waste of bandwidth compared to 5G. Keeping them on and wasting all that bandwidth is borderline negligence.
- crote 11mo ago