The 2G/3G Shutdown Has Arrived: What Is Happening to IoT Devices in Colombia

The 2G/3G Shutdown Has Arrived: What Is Happening to IoT Devices in Colombia

If you have connected devices in Colombia, this news has already affected you or will affect you very soon. The shutdown of the 2G and 3G networks is not a future warning. In Colombia it is already happening, and there are thousands of IoT devices that stopped transmitting without their owners knowing.

What exactly happened

For years, most IoT devices in Colombia ran on 2G networks. Fleet GPS trackers, security alarms, meters, payment terminals, industrial sensors. It was the available technology, it was cheap, and it worked.

But operators needed that frequency spectrum to deploy 4G and 5G. And the decision was to shut down the legacy networks.

Tigo was the first. It turned off its 2G network in 2021. Claro followed in 2023. Movistar started the process in phases from October 2024, beginning with departments such as Caldas, Nariño, Quindío and Caquetá, and continuing through the rest of the country in the following months.

The result: thousands of devices that depended on these networks stopped connecting. There was no visible failure. There was no error message. They simply stopped transmitting.

The problem nobody saw coming

The hardest part of this kind of situation is that no alarm goes off. A GPS device that stopped transmitting in an area where 2G was switched off does not warn that it lost connectivity. It simply stops appearing on the map.

A security alarm that operated on 2G does not notify that it can no longer send signals. It is still installed on the wall, with its green LED on, but it is no longer connected to anything.

And the most common scenario: operations teams discover the problem weeks later, when a customer calls to report that their device is not working.

That is the reality many companies in Colombia experienced during 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. And the one some are still facing, because the shutdown process is gradual and not all departments transitioned at the same time.

How to know if your devices are at risk

There is one simple question that gives you the answer: do you know which network each of your devices is connected to right now?

If the answer is no, or if you depend on someone else to tell you, you already have a visibility problem that goes beyond the 2G shutdown.

The most exposed devices are those purchased more than three years ago, especially first or second generation GPS units, alarm systems installed before 2020, meters deployed in remote metering projects, and any industrial sensor that has not had a hardware update since installation.

If you have any of these, the probability that they are running on legacy technology is high.

What is coming: 3G is leaving too

2G is already practically off in the main cities of the country. 3G is the next step.

Colombian operators are at different stages of that process. There is no single date, but the direction is clear: 3G networks will also disappear, and any device that depends on them will face the same problem 2G devices already lived through.

This matters because many devices that were migrated from 2G to 3G as a temporary fix will end up in the same situation in the coming years.

What to do now

The answer is not to panic or rush to replace every device at once. It is to gain visibility and have a plan.

First: audit. Know exactly which technology each deployed device is using. This sounds basic, but most companies do not have this inventory updated.

Second: prioritize. Not all devices have the same level of criticality. A sensor reporting warehouse temperature does not have the same impact as a fleet GPS or a payment terminal. The migration plan should start with critical devices.

Third: choose the connectivity for the next cycle wisely. The question is not just "how do I connect to 4G?" but "what happens if that operator fails or if that network also changes in the future?" A multi-operator SIM that automatically switches between available networks is today the safest way to avoid living through this problem again.

Fourth: have real time visibility. If you cannot see right now the status of each SIM, the operator it is connected to, and its consumption, the next shutdown will surprise you too. That is exactly what the Orion platform was built for.

The shutdown was a symptom, not the problem

What the 2G shutdown made evident is not that networks change. That was always obvious. What it made evident is that many companies in Colombia managed their IoT connectivity without real visibility, without redundancy, and without a plan for when market conditions changed.

Companies that did have visibility and multi-operator connectivity did not feel the shutdown. Their devices simply switched networks and kept working.

That difference is not a coincidence. It is the result of having chosen the right connectivity infrastructure from the beginning.

Want to know which technology your devices are using today, and whether they are ready for what is coming? Tell us about your operation and we will review it together.