A handful of Amazon's Kindle e-readers will permanently lose access to the internet by the end of this year as mobile network operators have started shutting down their legacy 2G and 3G network services. The first-gen Kindle made its debut all the way back in 2007, and proved so popular (and in short supply) that the device sold out in less than six hours, and it took roughly five months for the device to hit the shelves again. Over the years, Amazon has diversified the Kindle portfolio significantly, offering e-readers across multiple price brackets and with advanced features, such as color temperature adjustment and water resistance.

Product refinement also tends to mean that older tech will eventually become obsolete and needs to be phased out in favor of newer devices. Amazon shut down the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library service earlier this year and tried to substitute it with another perk called Prime Reading. The latter offers users access to a healthy collection of free books with their Prime membership. Some of the books also come with a free audio narration as part of Amazon’s Audible service, while the First Reads benefit offers a sneak peek at a few books before their public release.

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As far as aging hardware goes, Amazon’s support page explains the first and second-generation Kindle, as well as the Kindle DX, will no longer be able to access the internet starting from next year. Specifically, the internet connectivity via 2G and 3G will be shutting down as mobile network operators bring an end to their legacy cellular infrastructure in favor of the newer 4G and 5G services. However, losing access to the internet doesn’t necessarily mean these older Kindle e-readers become worthless.

Amazon Can't Do Much To Help

Older Kindle Models Are Losing Access To The Internet

Amazon says that users will still be able to access the entire book library they’ve downloaded on their older generation Kindle and continue reading it in the future. In addition, and as long as the 2G and 3G services remain available, they can continue to download new content over the internet up until December this year. Other 2G and 3G supporting models such as the Kindle Keyboard (Gen 3), Kindle Touch (Gen 4), Kindle Paperwhite (Gen 4, 6, and 7), Kindle Voyage (Gen 7), and Kindle (Gen 8) will also be affected. However, they will still be able to access the internet over Wi-Fi as they come with Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity support.

Amazon is offering a discount to some of the affected Kindle owners and is reaching out to them via email. To be eligible for the discount code, the user will need to have read content between January 1 and June 30, 2021, on one of the impacted Kindle models. For those that have received an an email, they will have up until August 15 to use the $50 discount towards the purchase of a new Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis. The latter is the best Kindle up for grabs in 2021, thanks to a great mix of price and features. For reference, those Kindle owners will also be getting $15 in the form of ebook credits for purchasing more books.

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Source: Amazon