John, If I remember correctly, you are a tech person.

I have an old model I-phone 5s and I have gotten notice from the service provider(pre-paid) that in January things will be going to 5G and that the older phones may have problems or not work.

Is this just a sales pitch to get me to buy a new phone?

My phone still works fine and I do not wish to buy another one. I only use my phone to text and talk. I only talk on it about 6 hours a month. I very rarely use it for internet search or anything else.

I am wanting to gamble that after the switch to 5G that it will still work for me as they stated it MAY have problems.

Do you think it would still work fine for talk and text?

I do not want a contract phone and I do not want to buy the latest phone and pay a small fortune.

4G and LTE will still continue to work. 5G is just starting to roll out in large cities.

Not John, but I can help.

The issue is that your phone does not support 4G-LTE, and the phone carriers are phasing out the 2G, 3G and first generation 4G networks.

It is NOT just a sales pitch, they really are phasing out the older bands on the phone networks.

I would wait and see what happens. It is likely that you'll be able to talk and text for quite a while, but not forever. When the time comes, Apple recently released a new version of the iPhone SE, which is about $400. You may also be able to purchase a used newer phone that does 5G by the time you really need it.

6man,

My Verizon guy says 5G is not everywhere yet so no hurry.

6x6, I can't tell you if your particular cellular service is giving you a scare tactic sales pitch, but many of the smaller prepaid services (MVNOs) lease their capacity from the big boys, who ARE upgrading to the new frequency bands. When they do this, they stop support for the old frequencies.

I, like you, had a well-liked iPhone 5s but it was not compatible with the T-mobile Connect prepaid I wanted. ($15/mo., unlimited talk/text, 2GB data, no extra fees.) The minimum iPhone compatible was the 6s. Found one local on Craigslist for $80, now I like it better than the 5s.

Ok, so, this is a bit tricky. The simple answer SHOULD be that this isn't an issue. 5G is barely rolling out and won't be nationwide for a LONG time. And, LOTS of 4g LTE phones still out there will continue to need 4G service -- which will therefore stay for a LONG time.

So, in theory, it should continue to work.

That being said, some PROVIDERS are indeed purposely trying to force upgrades and such. Verizon has done this more than once in the past where they would no longer activate older phones on their network even though the technology still fully supported them.

So, unfortunately, the answer is: "it depends." But, in general, yes, it should continue to work. For quite a while. Unless your provider is really evil. :)

Can you tell us who you use currently? And, do you know if your phone is "locked" to them?

- John...

Thank you all for the responses.

I use total wireless which uses Verizon towers.

I would think that my phone is unlocked since it is a prepaid through total wireless.

How do you determine if your phone is unlocked?

Reach into that wallet and dust off some bills - they haven't seen the light of day for sometime.

I am not a techie or anything, but I do know an Amish-man that has a 6S...

Both hubby and I have phones that were $5 each and cost us $10 per phone a month, which is more than plenty for us. Talk and text, prefer to do neither of those. One year I bought 10 of them because we lose phones so often and easily. After 2 years we were out of phones so bought more online for $20 each. I hope they will be working for awhile. I just can't see paying so much for a phone.

Ha Ha, that's good Ray. I wouldn't want to throw away a perfectly good working product. This country is very wasteful.

Dee Ann, What service do you have that is $10 a month?

long ago, when phones were in cars and the size of a phone book, I was in that business -- as in the 80's / 90's

Verizon was the better of the two carriers then and has continued through to today. They use the long established mil spec CDMA technology.

5G,....then 6G,....then 7G is coming. First out will be high density / high volume / high revenue cities and areas. the usage numbers are in their computers. Major airport terminals, train stations, high density high rise cities, etc.

Where users are stationary or walking between 2 or 3 cell sites --- slowly. Revenue minutes per dollar infrastructure spent.

4G,...3G,...2G will still be there and functioning to carry hand off calls and overloads. They're already there, wired up and functioning. They're not gonna pull em out. Your service may be slower, weaker, funkier with an older phone when you're on or stepped down to a lower ''G'' frequency on a cell site,.....but so will the 5G guy when he gets bumped down because it's rush hour. Like computers, all phones are designed to step down to older software when necessary. The money is made selling the juice (airtime),.....not the container it comes in (the phone).

5G is probably 3 to 4 years out to full design saturation, and 6 G will probably start opening up in 18 to 36 months !

Thank you dave.

Two paper cups with a string between them also works - but we have moved beyond that when turned age 8.........