Elisa will retire its 2G network across Estonia in 2028

Elisa intends to retire its second-generation mobile service in 2028, Sakala reported. The shutdown will proceed area by area. Handsets and other equipment limited to 2G or 3G will then lose connectivity. Estonia has already ended 3G.

Spokesman Toomas Polli said the standard dates from an era when a handset's chief purpose was voice calls and short texts, and that mobile networks have since taken on a wholly different role.

Rivals Telia and Tele2 also plan to retire 2G, though both point to 2029 or 2030 at the earliest. Tele2 spokesman Tanel Sarri said gate systems and security equipment still depend on the older service.

Kristo Kork, Elisa's director of network-services development, said the regional sequence is still being prepared and that users will be told well ahead. The company declined to state how many connections on its network are limited to 2G, while adding that the large majority of devices already work on 4G and 5G.

On its website, Elisa records that it ended 3G in late 2024. Voice and data traffic now mostly travels on later generations, yet a share of equipment in the country remains on 2G. Besides ageing phones, that group covers alarm and security units, meters for power and water, card terminals, and automation used in industry and buildings.

Polli said the typical phone user will have nothing to change, while equipment built to outlast a handset needs review. He said some units for monitoring, metering or automated control may have been put in place a decade or longer ago and still run over 2G.

Second-generation service began in Finland in 1991 and is being withdrawn across northern Europe. Sweden and Norway plan their switch-off for 2027, and Iceland completed the step last year. Australia, Japan and the United States have already closed networks of that generation. Elisa advises travellers who are unsure about coverage to confirm that a device can use 4G, VoLTE, or both.