The nation’s main telecom companies have urged the government to continue to provide subsidies to 2G service users to facilitate their migration to more advanced services before the 2G service licenses expire in June next year.
National Communications Commission statistics show Taiwan still had about 710,000 2G service users as of April, despite the planned termination of the service next year, when operators have to return their 2G licenses.
A majority of the users subscribe to the 2G service offered by Chunghwa Telecom, the statistics showed.
For the remaining 2G users, the commission had proposed that Chunghwa Telecom be the sole provider of 2G services after the licenses expire, using the bandwidth that the company acquired through the bidding of the radio frequencies reserved for the use of the 4G telecom service.
The Taiwan Telecommunication Industry Development Association, whose members include five major telecoms, said the technology used to offer the 2G service is not an advanced one anymore.
Although the telecoms can apropriate a portion of their 4G bandwidth for 2G customers, the 2G service would have to be offered using different base stations, and the switchover would not be easy, the association said.
The company offering the 2G service could expect more complaints from users if service reception fails to reach their expectations following the base station switchover, the association said, adding that the government should discontinue the service as planned.
The association also said that the comission should stop certifying new 2G mobile phones so that more 2G users would be motivated to migrate to more advanced services.
Chunghwa Telecom said that the number of people subscribing to its 2G service has dwindled from about 2.6 million at one point to about 460,000.
However, Taiwan Mobile said that it has about 180,000 2G service users.
Both companies said that they would offer incentives to motivate their 2G subscribers to switch to a 3G or 4G service, such as 4G service plans in which the service rates are comparable to the ones they have now with 2G mobile phones.
They would also offer service plans in which customers’ mobile phones would be provided free of charge if users subscribe to the service for a certain number of years.
While the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau offers a subsidy program to 2G service subscribers to purchase 4G mobile phones — which ends tomorrow — Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile said the government should continue the subsidy program.
The commission said that it has not discarded the option of allowing the telecoms to help 2G subscribers change their service plans over the phone to expedite the transition and reduce the costs of changing their contracts, provided that the conversations would be recorded in place of a written consent form.
Telecoms companies should offer special service plans for 2G subscribers, it said.
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