AT&T is retiring 3G

I gave K's old iPhone 5 to my sister, years ago, and while she doesn’t feel she needs a cellphone, she’s been loving having the camera and the RunKeeper app for her walks in the forest. She had a local shop replace the battery last year, since it wasn't holding a charge, and she expected it to last her five more years. I warned her about evolving technology, and advised she just upgrade it instead, but she was hard-over on doing the simple thing, and not having to deal with learning how to use a new phone. Yesterday, she received this email (click on the pic), and innocently asked me what I thought it meant. Heavy sigh. I couldn't find anything about it online, since nobody had reacted to it yet, and wondered out loud if it might be a scam, and also worried that it might be real. The good news is that today, I am finding lots of information, including the encouraging fact that AT&T failed to mention that it won't happen until early 2022. Here's AT&T's more specific notice, and the list of phones that will work on the new network.