French Elevator Federation Calls For Delay in Network Shutdown

France’s Elevator Federation (Fédération des Ascenseurs) has asked for the shutdown of the country’s 2G and 3G networks to be delayed as the networks are still being used by elevator manufacturers, Data Centre Dynamics reported in October. French telcos Bouygues Telecom and Altice plan to retire their respective 2G networks by 2026, while Orange wants to switch its 2G network off next year with all aiming to retire their 3G service by 2029. The federation warns that, at present, the industry is not ready to deal with this change as nearly half of the country’s elevators are equipped with either 2G or 3G technology, according to French publication Clubic. The publication notes that it was told by the federation that approximately 232,000 2G systems and 58,000 3G systems would need to be replaced. Telcos across the world are shutting down their 2G and 3G legacy networks, but, in the case of 2G, which is an older technology than 3G, the technology is still widely used beyond the traditional telecoms market.