Verizon’s looking forward to leave behind this decade with some of the oldest technology in wireless communications it uses.

Its CDMA 1X network, which carries traffic for some end consumers as well as machine-to-machine clients, is scheduled to be entirely off by December 31, 2019. In an interview with FierceWireless, spokesperson Chuck Hamby said that the company is working on converting businesses running CDMA-reliant equipment and will work with customers “one-on-one.”

“Should there be stragglers, we will continue to work with them,” he said.

The day-pinned deadline seems to have been decided on recently. CFO Fran Shammo said as late as last year at a JPMorgan event that he thought that the 2G network “is going to be here for a long time.”

Verizon would refarm CDMA spectrum for use with LTE — the company claims that technology moves 92 percent of its traffic. It is also working on converting its 3G EV-DO network.

AT&T has set out to end EDGE service by 2017. Both carriers and others are all focused on commercializing 5G service.

Source: FierceWireless