It’s still a small number of users no matter how many use cases you list. There are newer Kindles and newer cars. 3g being turned off is inevitable no matter how many old devices are in existence.
Better question: does it cost anything for them to offer it? I’d bet the cost is minimal since the infrastructure is in place. Removing it just increases landfill waste.
What percentage of people use 3g only phones? If it’s 1%, does it make sense to keep those services running just for those people?
It’s not necessarily phones. It’s trackers, monitoring devices, laptops, access points, and tablets that all run over 3G bands.
Great! You can get 4g/5g versions of those devices because, again, the world doesn’t owe the 1% of users services
Older Kindles. Cars
It’s still a small number of users no matter how many use cases you list. There are newer Kindles and newer cars. 3g being turned off is inevitable no matter how many old devices are in existence.
It’s not just for that. 3G isn’t that overloaded. In my area I get 1-3Mbps on 4G LTE but around 20Mbps on 3G HSPA+.
It’s not overloaded because fewer people use it, so it costs more to run those services for less benefit
In the US almost none, the networks are being shut down.
Better question: does it cost anything for them to offer it? I’d bet the cost is minimal since the infrastructure is in place. Removing it just increases landfill waste.