Mobile operators to offer ‘zero-cost’ 3G transition

The 2G mobile network will be shut down in July but operators will allow the nearly 169,000 users to move to the 3G service at ‘zero-cost’, the telecommunications regulator assured yesterday.
Up to last November around 12 percent of local mobile users were still using the 2G service. Last month lawmaker Kwan Tsui Hang asked the government for a solution for these users, including the change of mobile phone devices.
The Telecommunications Regulation Bureau (DSRT) is confident that there will be a smooth transition.
“The operators must get in touch with the users, let them know of the change and offer them special plans to change to 3G,” said Brendan Sio Weng Weng, head of the DSRT competition promotion department.
“Some 3G service plans are actually cheaper than existing 2G plans,” he stressed.
The operators stopped selling new 2G mobile phones or service plans in the second half of 2010, in order to prepare for the transition, the official revealed.
In mid last year the DSRT also asked operators to start expanding and improving the mobile phone network to ensure full access to the 3G service everywhere in Macau. Sio said so far they had not received any complaints about ‘black spots’ in the territory.
Mobile service providers are currently setting up new towers or boosting the existing ones. He warned that during this process there might be some glitches in local mobile service.
From July 9 onwards all local mobile phones will exclusively use the 3G network. The only exception will be made for tourists who resort to roaming with phones from countries where 2G is still used.

While 2G only covers phone calls and SMS text messages, 3G allows for mobile Internet access, video calls and even mobile TV. “It’s more effective in fully using the radio spectrum,” Sio said, and it will benefit the development of local telecommunications.

V.Q.