Disable 2G mobile network in Android 12

There's an important new feature in Android 12 that may sound strange at first, but it makes sense: privacy, more security.

3G is currently being phased out in Hungary. The main reason is that few people use it, and there is a better alternative, 4G or 5G. However, the 2G network in Hungary will remain for some time, while in other countries it was switched off years ago.

The new feature in Android 12 allows you to disable the 2G network from your phone, which is a security risk for several reasons. For one, there is no proper control between the cell tower and the device. An attacker could easily impersonate a cell tower, thereby intercepting communications.

This is not usually very likely to happen under normal circumstances. A bigger problem is 2G encryption: using 2G is often like using WEP encryption for WiFi networks, which we know is easily breakable.

It is still in use for phone calls in our country, but more and more operators and devices are offering VoLTE, or voice calls over the LTE network, which provides much better quality and is more secure.

The feature will mainly be available on new devices that come with Android 12 out of the box, as it requires manufacturer driver support to use it, and unfortunately manufacturers rarely release driver-level updates for older devices, so it is unlikely that a device purchased with Android 11 will support this feature when upgraded to Android 12.