DoCoMo kills off 2G

Get out the black arm bands – it looks like rumours of the death of 2G really haven’t been exaggerated. Japanese giant NTT DoCoMo has announced its preparing to kill off its second generation network and will now officially stop taking subscriptions for its 2G mova service from this November.

And, as a sweetener for anyone thinking of ditching the mova service and switching to its 3G equivalent FOMA, DoCoMo has said it will waive the usual 2,100 yen fee for the upgrade.

There’s no official timeline on when mova will be officially turned off, with DoCoMo saying it will depend on when users make the transition. While the death of 2G is quite exciting in itself, what’s more interesting is what the company will do with the spectrum that gets freed up – potentially recycling it for new services like machine-to-machine communications or use it for boosting in-home wireless VoIP with femotcells.