2G Switch-Off: Check Your Devices
French operators are switching off 2G around Monaco by December 2026. Which payment terminals, alarms and lift phones are at risk, and what to do now.
The devices most likely to fail in your business this winter are not laptops or phones. They are the small boxes nobody thinks about: the SIM card in a lift's emergency phone, the alarm panel that calls the monitoring centre, the mobile card terminal used for deliveries, the GPS tracker on a van or a tender. Many of them still talk over 2G, and the French mobile networks around Monaco are switching 2G off between now and mid-December 2026.
Most of these devices fail silently. An alarm can look perfectly normal while it has lost its link to the monitoring centre. You find out when it matters.
The calendar around Monaco
The dates below come from the operators' published schedules, relayed by Arcep, the French telecoms regulator:
- Orange switched off 2G in the city of Nice on 22 September 2026 and in the rest of the Alpes-Maritimes (06), the Var (83) and the other Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur departments on 6 October 2026. Its 2G network is fully off nationwide on 20 October, except for regulatory "white zones", which follow between 1 and 15 December.
- SFR starts on 15 November 2026 in very dense areas and completes its switch-off everywhere between 1 and 15 December.
- Bouygues Telecom is closing 2G by the end of 2026. Free Mobile has no 2G network of its own.
- 3G is next: end of 2028 for Orange and SFR, end of 2029 for Bouygues Telecom.
Monaco has been through a version of this already: Monaco Telecom retired the copper network and the old "Prise T" sockets in 2024, and many businesses only discovered which alarm and lift lines depended on copper when they were told to migrate. This time the change is happening mostly on the French side of the border, so there is no local campaign telling you to act.
Why a Monaco business should care
Three situations put Monaco companies directly in scope.
Devices with French SIM cards. A large share of alarm installers, lift maintenance firms, payment terminal providers and fleet-tracking services serving the Principality are based in the Alpes-Maritimes and supply French SIMs. Since March 2024, SFR, Bouygues and Free subscribers in Monaco connect to Monaco Telecom's network (Orange customers already did), so how those SIMs behave inside Monaco depends on Monaco Telecom's network, not just on the French calendar. A device that relies on 2G may already be struggling, or may be clinging to a French antenna across the border that is about to go dark.
Sites outside the Principality. Many Monaco businesses run a warehouse in Carros or Nice, a workshop in Beausoleil, a villa or construction site in Cap-d'Ail or Roquebrune, or staff who work across the border. Anything connected over 2G at those sites is on the French calendar above.
Mobile operations. Delivery drivers, event teams, yacht crew and chauffeurs often carry equipment that roams between Monaco, France and Italy. A card terminal or tracker that works in the office but fails on a quay in Antibes is still a lost sale or a lost asset.
Monaco Telecom's own long-term 2G and 3G plans are a question to put to Monaco Telecom directly. The safe assumption is that any device which only speaks 2G or 3G is on borrowed time everywhere.
What is most likely to be affected
Arcep and the French operators list the same categories again and again:
- Lift emergency phones (téléalarmes d'ascenseur), a safety obligation for building managers and co-owners.
- Intruder alarms and fire or technical alarms that report to a monitoring centre over a SIM.
- Mobile payment terminals, especially older standalone models used by restaurants, delivery services, market traders and event staff.
- GPS trackers on vehicles, tenders, scooters, equipment or high-value goods.
- Telecare devices and alert pendants for elderly or vulnerable people, relevant to care providers and residences.
- Building systems: heating and air-conditioning controls, gate and garage intercoms, meters and sensors.
- Basic phones and older smartphones that cannot make calls over 4G (VoLTE).
That last point catches people out. When 2G and 3G disappear, voice calls rely on 4G with VoLTE. A device that "has 4G" for data but no VoLTE support can lose the ability to make calls altogether, including emergency calls.
A one-hour audit you can do this week
You do not need an engineer to start. You need a list.
- Walk the premises and write down every device with a SIM card or a mobile antenna: lifts, alarms, terminals, gates, trackers, sensors, spare phones in drawers.
- Note the supplier and the SIM operator for each. Your alarm or lift maintenance contract usually names both.
- Ask each supplier in writing whether the device works on 4G (or LTE-M/NB-IoT for connected objects), and whether it has been tested on Monaco Telecom's network as well as in France.
- Test what you can: trigger a test alarm, run a test payment on the terminal in Monaco and at your French sites, check the tracker reports its position.
- Budget replacements now. Installers in the region have been busy since September, and lead times will not improve in December.
For co-owned buildings, put the lift and common-area alarms on the agenda of the building manager (syndic) rather than assuming they have been handled.
Payments deserve special attention
A failed card terminal is the most visible version of this problem: queue at the till, guests who cannot pay a deposit, a delivery that leaves without payment. If you are replacing terminals anyway, use it as a chance to review the whole payment set-up: 4G or Wi-Fi terminals, tap-to-pay on a phone, payment links, and how in-store and online payments reconcile. Payment providers can work differently in Monaco than in France, so confirm compatibility with your acquiring bank before ordering hardware. Our e-commerce services team regularly helps Monaco merchants align online checkout with in-store and mobile payments.
Turn the switch-off into an inventory
The businesses that handle this calmly are the ones that already know what is connected to what. The same list you build for 2G is the starting point for 3G in 2028, for cybersecurity reviews and for any digital strategy work: which systems you depend on, who maintains them, and what happens when one fails. Keep it in the same place as your website, domain and software records, and review it once a year, as part of your website maintenance and support routine.
Telecom calendars can shift, and operators publish updates. Before replacing equipment, confirm the dates and your device's compatibility with your supplier and operator.
If you want help mapping the systems your business relies on, or modernising payments and customer journeys while you are at it, get in touch.
