In many places yes, but still with a much reduced bandwidth allocations.

Newer generations increase the spectral efficiency, so more throughput can be supported on the same spectrum. So the operators tend to move spectrum from old to new generations.

This is not immediate and there are a lot of differences from one operator to the next: in an area with low demand it's more cost efficient to keep using the old hardware as much as possible for example, until at some point using new more efficient hardware is cheaper than maintaining the old one. Then there are contractual obligations: some 2G is kept around to support industrial M2M applications with contracts covering 10 to 15 years of service for example.

Which is why there's quite a lot of differences from operator to operator. Still, the trend is always there. What changes is the transition speed.

GSM can easily share a frequency block with LTE/5G, so it's much easier to keep it around. 3G needs a whole 5 MHz frequency block for itself, but could you use the same block and assign 4.5 MHz to LTE or 5G and just 0.5 MHz for a few GSM legacy devices. That's why it makes sense to turn off 3G, but keep GSM for older devices.

In the US, that won't be the case. AT&T shut down GSM at the end of 2016. Verizon will be shutting down its 2G/3G CDMA network at the end of 2022. T-Mobile is also slated to shut down its 2G GSM network at the end of 2022.

As others have pointed out, 2G GSM uses less spectrum (not for the same usage, but as a base) with 0.2MHz channels rather than 5MHz channels. There's been some stuff talking about T-Mobile running GSM inside the guard bands of their LTE network (dead space between channels). Still, it seems like they're also going to be shutting it down.

T-Mobile's GSM network is pretty limited with maybe a third of the coverage of their LTE and 5G networks. It doesn't use any low-band spectrum so it performs pretty poorly. They also haven't been expanding it over the past 7 years or so, preferring to put their effort into LTE and now 5G.

They did keep GSM alive a lot longer than AT&T (6 years longer), but it seems like the reasons for keeping it alive are dwindling compared to the cost.

The UK has recently agreed with the industry to phase out 2G by 2033, as mentioned in another comment here.

I imagine there will be a fair bit of industrial equipment and smart meters needing replaced as a result!

That used to be the case, ( ~2018 ) when MNO around the world have a similar stance, have 2G as Fall Back, and switching off 3G. But more and more operators are now thinking of the idea switching off both 2G and 3G within the next 5-10 years. So their whole network will be IP based.

I think that greatly depends how much they can continue to milk those 2G / 3G equipment. And the pandemic has speed things up a little bit.

As far as I know, since mid-2018, all 2G networks are offline in Australia. I've seen similar articles for other countries.

Thats good to know thank you. I like to fall back on 2G phone rather than a smartphone from time to time.

I still use GSM daily in the US with a few new and classic phones. The technology is at just the right level with only calls and some texting.

That's what happening in Finland too. All operators have announced that 3G will be switched off in 2023.