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> Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste. If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds wil
by Aurornis 8mo ago
> Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste.
If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. It’s not e-waste for the intended purpose.
It would be great if they got higher days caps, though, because let’s be realistic in acknowledging that they’re not only going to use it for Google Maps, email, and job search apps.
- tormeh 8mo agoEmail and chat apps will work, but everything else will slow to a crawl at best and time out at worst.
- NullPrefix 8mo agoby email you mean pop3, imap and smtp or the heavy html web client?
- hedora 8mo agoI doubt email would work, even with imap or pop3. I get a lot of spam per day, and imap clients typically download unread messages. I guess you could configure it not to do that, or write your own imap client with better behavior -- on your 2G smartphone.
- reaperducer 8mo agoIf someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. It’s not e-waste for the intended purpose. Guess how I know you've never actually tried this. Part of my job is testing the web sites I build in the terrible real-world conditions where our customers are. Places like machine rooms, deep basements, and small towns with only municipal or small-carrier 3G cell service. (In spite of what HN believes, there are plenty of places in America with 3G or even zero cell service.) 2G speeds will not work. The device or one of the essential thousands of processes in it will time out because they were designed by tech bubble tech bros who never use their apps in the real world.
- zamadatix 8mo ago> (In spite of what HN believes, there are plenty of places in America with 3G or even zero cell service.) 0 of course, but wasn't 3G all shut down in the US in 2022 to open up the airspace?
- reaperducer 8mo ago0 of course, but wasn't 3G all shut down in the US in 2022 to open up the airspace? One of those HN myths that comes from only being willing to Google (or ChatGPT) information, rather than encountering it in the real world. 3G still exists in rural and remote areas that no major carrier wants to serve, at least as of April, 2025 — the last time I did a round of real-world web testing. Next round is in September. Maybe with 5G in the cities, some hand-me-down 4G equipment has made it to the places where I test.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- coryrc 8mo agoThat's weird, because it's directly contradicting that the carriers themselves say they have decommissioned it. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/plan-ahead-phase-out-3g-cellular-networks-and-service https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/plan-ahead-phase-out-3g...
- filoleg 8mo agoI don't believe there is a contradiction. The FCC page you linked is talking about major carriers decommissioning 3G. The grandparent comment is talking about rural/remote areas that no major carrier served in the first place.
- jazzyjackson 8mo agoI guess what I am getting from this thread is, there is 3G service out there in the wild. However, in locations where 4G and 5G is available, 3G has been phased out This doesn’t jibe with my experience trying to make phone calls on rural highways, where it seems there is no signal whatsoever more often than not. I suppose this could be because ATT-Verizon-T-Mobile used to have 2G in that area (which was discontinued — 900Mhz analog voice band, also decommissioned) has moved on and left swathes of the US without signal, whereas, certain areas (commenter omits an example) never were served by major telecoms and have “evolved” their tech more slowly, so 3G is not decommissioned in those places. In that sense yes there is no contradiction. It still feels like we’ve gone backwards since there are places I used to be able to make a phone call that are now considered remote area with satellite SOS being you’re only way to reach someone
- smelendez 8mo agoIn my experience, a slow connection can be less usable for some apps than none at all. If there’s no connection or you’re in airplane mode, some apps will let you access locally stored/cached data, but as soon as there’s a bad connection, they’ll wipe that data by trying to unsuccessfully refresh it from the server.
- nathanmills 8mo agoThis is an easy fix: Just cut off their data after it runs out instead of falling back to 2G speeds. Sounds like a win-win for both the data provider and the user.
- TheDong 8mo agoI hope you're joking. The obvious easy fix is to give them unlimited data. If the intent is to give them internet, they should give them internet that functions for the modern web.
- nathanmills 8mo agoUnlimited data! You make it sound so easy.
- asdff 8mo agoIt was seemingly easy for every cell provider to give it to every teenager in america just 10 years ago. What is a few marginalized adults in 2026?
- lazide 8mo agoThey won’t be marginalized if we don’t shit on them somehow.
- mikkupikku 8mo agoUnless we nut up and ban gambling, there will never be a shortage of broke motherfuckers who should be able to make ends meet with their job but simply never will be able to. You have no idea how badly gambling suppresses a large subset of the working class.
- jagged-chisel 8mo agoHow are they supposed to know which job search platforms (app or web) aren’t going to blow their bandwidth limits?
- tbossanova 8mo agoTrue, and also when you actually go to apply for a job it often kicks you out to another website, that will use who knows how many mbs? And you have to fill in your details again and again. Each one a different flavour. Sometimes saying the same thing multiple times for the same job ad.
- type0 8mo agoNon technical people are afraid to block adds on their Android device since Google might find out about it and decides to eliminate their account; I was not able to convince them otherwise.
- duskdozer 8mo agoIn fairness that doesn't sound too farfetched to me...
- jasonlotito 8mo agoFor those who can't understand this comment, here is what it means: "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? 10 dollars?"
- DrewADesign 8mo agoIf 2G speeds were what they were when it was heavily used? Sure. Nowadays? Not in my experience. I got downgraded to Google Fi’s 2G in a well-traveled part of Virginia using a flagship Samsung and I couldn’t even load directions on Google Maps where I’d already downloaded most of the map for offline use. 2G ain’t like it used to be when it was still given a second thought by providers.
- microtonal 8mo agoIt’s not only the providers. 2G is 120kbit max on a lot of networks and 50kbit on average. Even a 1MB site, that is lean by today’s standards will take 160 seconds to load. 2G is really from a different age. Does anyone remember WAP and i-mode? I was certainly not able to afford data back then, but that is what all the business’y types were raving about.
- DrewADesign 8mo agoYeah that’s true — 2G was in the WAP days. Forgot about that.
- palmotea 8mo ago> If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. 2G EDGE was 384 kbit/s (48 kB/s) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G). That means 21 seconds to download a 1 MB page. I just loaded the careers page at my employer, and the page weighed in at 3.6 MB, so you're talking 75 seconds.
- PunchyHamster 8mo agosounds like someone never tried connection that slow on modern sites
- iberator 8mo ago2G (EDGE, EDGE+) doesn't allow you to do a job search. In reality this is like 16kb with speeds similar to 56k modem. No modern JS website works. Ssh, irc works and thats about it. Modern stuff like certificates also slows it down. I'm talking here about real life - not some emulated 2G in your browser.