In the dark of the night, Rogers decided to push back its 3G network shutdown plans another seven days so it will now begin on August 7.
Rogers has changed the wording on its website and told us that it is reaching out directly to customers who remain on 3G to let them know they have another week to upgrade their phone or change to a different carrier. The first regions to go offline will be parts of Quebec and the Ottawa area, but the rest of the country will slowly go offline after that.
In a statement to MobileSyrup, the carrier said, “We are giving our customers who are using our 3G network more time to migrate to an upgraded network experience. We will begin to gradually retire the network and will let our customers know before it is retired in their area. Customers can migrate to our 4G LTE or 5G network without changing their plan, and we’re offering them a new, compatible device for $0 if needed.”
The shutdown was originally planned to start on July 31. It meant that anyone with a really old phone that only uses 3G would no longer be able to get online or make calls. Moreover, Rogers charged customers who continued to use 3G a one-time $75 fee and a monthly $3 fee.
That said, there have been numerous hurdles with tons of modern phones because once 3G goes away, there is no default standard for calling on 4G that every phone supports. Instead, there are tons of different Voice over LTE (VoLTE) standards, and there is no guarantee that your phone and carrier will support the same bands, especially if your phone is older than 2019 or from another country.
If you are on Rogers or one of the other carriers that use Rogers’ infrastructure, like Freedom Mobile, you can check out some of our prior coverage on the 3G shutdown:
- Hundreds of phones won’t work on Rogers’ network without 3G
- Rogers, Fido customers furious as service cut off ahead of 3G shutdown
- Freedom Mobile caught up in Rogers 3G shutdown too
- Rogers offers customers with old phones no-cost upgrades ahead of 3G shutdown
- Rogers adds $75 fee for customers still using 3G at end of June
- OnePlus rolling out VoLTE support as Rogers sunsets 3G
Update 31/08/2025 11:28 am ET: This story has been updated to clarify that the 3G shutdown is only beginning on the August 7 and will slowly go offline after that.
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