And by the end of this year, all the major cellular carriers will permanently shut down their 3G networks.
Barry says,"Automakers have known for years that the 3G networks were shutting down, but as recently as 2019 they were putting 3G technology into new vehicles." Some vehicles already have 4G capability so to keep your car's connected services, you might only have to perform a software update at home, the same way you would on a phone or laptop.
But other vehicles will require a hardware upgrade, and for many car owners, that might come at a cost!"When we were reporting this story, we found it really hard to figure out which cars were affected by it. We had to go into the owner's manuals and look at engineering documents to find out," Barry told us.
The best advice is to ask your dealer if and when the connected services on your car are set to expire.