GPRS is the 2G-era mobile data service that most budget GPS trackers still use to send positions — and which is being switched off network by network.
GPRS — General Packet Radio Service — is the packet data service added to 2G GSM networks in the early 2000s. It is slow by any modern standard, topping out around 50 kbit/s.
For a GPS tracker that is entirely adequate. A position report is a few hundred bytes, and sending it takes a fraction of a second. GPRS also uses far less power than 4G and reaches further from each mast, which is why an enormous number of budget trackers still rely on it.
The problem is not capability. It is that the networks are being turned off.
Operators are reclaiming 2G spectrum for 4G and 5G. The timeline varies sharply by country, and there is no global schedule.
Already switched off, or substantially so: Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and most US carriers. Switzerland has completed shutdown.
Still running, with announced end dates: much of Europe and the UK, generally through the late 2020s.
Retained deliberately: parts of Africa, South America, and South Asia, where 2G remains important infrastructure — and, notably, some European operators keeping a minimal 2G layer specifically for IoT devices.
Check your own country and operator before buying anything. A 2G-only tracker in a country that has completed shutdown is a paperweight, and no configuration will change that. This is the single most consequential thing to verify about a cheap tracker, and it is rarely on the product page.
| Technology | Notes |
|---|---|
| LTE Cat-M1 | Low-power 4G for IoT. Good coverage where deployed, similar power draw to 2G. |
| NB-IoT | Very low power, excellent building penetration, low data rate. Suits infrequent reporting. |
| LTE Cat-1 / Cat-4 | Full 4G. Higher power draw and cost; used by mid-range and premium trackers. |
For a tracker sending small position reports, Cat-M1 and NB-IoT are the natural successors — designed for exactly this traffic pattern.
If you already run 2G trackers in a country heading for shutdown, they will not degrade gradually. They will work until the day the network stops, and then stop entirely.
Worth auditing now rather than discovering it when a trailer goes missing. The practical check is simple: confirm each tracker reported a position recently, and find out your operator’s 2G end date.
Note that a tracker failing to report is not necessarily a network problem — a misconfigured APN produces identical symptoms and is far more common. Rule that out first, since it is free to check and free to fix. See also IMEI for how a tracker identifies itself once it does connect.
Last reviewed 7 August 2026.
An APN (Access Point Name) is the setting that tells a SIM-equipped device which gateway to use for mobile data — and the most common reason a GPS tracker never reports.
An IMEI is the 15-digit serial number that uniquely identifies a mobile device, and on most GPS trackers it doubles as the only credential the device presents to a server.
LBS positioning estimates a device's location from nearby mobile network towers rather than satellites — far less accurate than GPS, but it works indoors and needs no fix.
The reporting interval is how often a tracker sends its position to a server — the single setting that most directly trades battery life against how quickly you learn about a boundary crossing.
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