Key takeaways
Eir starts switching off 3G from 1 October 2026, giving Irish sites a firm date to check their cellular-connected equipment.
Devices with 3G-only modems, from alarm panels to telemetry units, lose connection entirely once the switch-off reaches them, not gradually
Netcelero’s i-spi and i-ctrl run on 4G/5G, though it’s worth confirming no unit is quietly relying on the 3G fallback first.
Ireland now has a specific, dated answer to ‘when is 3G actually going away here’. Eir announced on 28 May 2026 that it will begin switching off its 3G network from 1 October 2026, phased over several weeks rather than a single cutover.
Eir has said the change will have no impact on most of its roughly 2 million customers, since only a small proportion still rely on 3G-only devices, and it is contacting affected customers directly, including automatically sending replacement SIMs to customers aged 65 and over identified as needing one. The regulator’s own guidance is a useful reminder of how wide ‘3G-only devices’ actually runs: ComReg specifically flags that the affected category includes not just older phones but smartwatches, GPS trackers and heating systems, essentially anything with an embedded 3G-only cellular module.
The mechanism is a hard stop rather than a slowdown. A device with a 3G-only modem does not get a degraded connection once 3G is switched off in its area, it gets no cellular connection at all on that bearer. For any Irish site with cameras, alarm panels, PLCs or telemetry equipment connected via an older cellular module installed years ago, the relevant question is not whether that equipment currently works, it is whether the modem inside it was ever capable of 4G in the first place. The specifics differ by operator, but the underlying risk sits with legacy hardware rather than with the network itself.
This is within scope for Netcelero’s own hardware, with one thing worth checking rather than assuming. The i-ctrl uses onboard CAT4 or CAT12 modems and i-ctrl variants support 5G, so neither requires 3G to operate. Those modems do support UMTS as a fallback bearer, which means a unit at a site with marginal 4G coverage could be using 3G some of the time today without that being obvious from the outside. Netcelero’s Analytics Portal shows connection health per site, which is the practical way to check that before October rather than finding out after it. What this announcement is otherwise useful for is prompting a check on everything else at a site: any cellular-connected kit whose modem specification predates 4G becoming the default is worth confirming against its datasheet before October, rather than after a device silently loses signal.
If a site’s alarm panel or camera transmitter itself only supports 3G, replacing that hardware is a decision for the installer and the site owner, not something Netcelero’s connectivity layer can resolve on its own.
The practical next step for any ARC, installer or site operator in Ireland is a short inventory check before October: identify any cellular-connected equipment whose specification predates the 4G-only era, and confirm what generation of network its modem actually supports rather than assuming from the install date. That is a smaller job now than a reactive one after October.
If you’d like to discuss this further, please contact your Netcelero account manager.
