The folks at Verizon have been getting a ton of heat for years due to its 3G CDMA network. Nothing about it is practical. Taking a GSM phone to the carrier was, and still is, impossible. Everything operable on Verizon's network had to tailored just for it. The advent of LTE networks showed that there was some hope for Verizon customers. Now, it seems that the old 3G is being phased out because the carrier believes in LTE.
Milan Milanovic, the man who has spotted many network changes in the past, revealed that frequencies in New York City formerly belonging to the 3G network now have LTE signals. The signal strength and data speed was not very reliable, but it does prove that change is in the airwaves.
Kevin Fitchard of Gigaom contacted Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis to find out what exactly the carrier is doing. Lewis did confirm that Verizon was doing this across the nation, but “wouldn't go into specifics on locations or timing for a commercial launch.” In 2015, Verizon does plan on rerouting some of its 3G network to allow for LTE's growth. The 3G network has to stick around for a bit longer because so many customers are roaming the United States with devices that rely upon it and the 2G network.
And don't expect the 2G network to go anywhere because voice calls operate over it.
Source: @milanmilanovic
Via: Gigaom
3G won’t go anywhere as basic phones still route through that part of the network or of course I could be wrong but I know because on my account we have a basic phone which uses 3G