For a 70-year-old Taipei resident surnamed Liu (劉), a mobile phone is a dispensable item.
Despite the prevailing use of third and fourth-generation (3G and 4G) telecom services, Liu uses a Samsung phone that only offers second-generation (2G) connectivity.
He says he uses it to take calls when he is outside and that it is good enough for him.
“My friends have no problem reaching me, because they know they can always call me at home,” he said. “I can live with or without [my cellphone] and I never use it to go online.”
Liu said he uses an iPad to access the Line messaging app and check his Facebook account, although he mainly uses the device to listen to music.
Liu is one of the so-called “hardcore” 2G service subscribers who the nation’s three main telecom companies are trying to migrate to more advanced 3G or 4G services before the 2G operational license expires on June 30.
Second-generation mobile services were launched in 1998 and were originally scheduled to be terminated by 2013, according to the National Communications Commission (NCC).
The Executive Yuan later extended the deadline until the middle of this year due to the large number of 2G subscribers.
In 2012, the nation had about 6.5 million 2G users, but as of the third quarter of last year, that number fell to 492,000.
By contrast, the number of 4G users last year rose from 15.19 million in the second quarter to 16.72 million in the third quarter.
The number of 3G users fell from 13.28 million to 11.77 million in the same period.
It is not just older people who resist what new technology has to offer.
“Last year, I had to discard my 2G mobile phone, which I had used for 10 years, because its screen stopped working,” said a 40-year-old Taipei office clerk surnamed Luo (羅).
Luo said she knew about smartphones, but had no intention of replacing her 2G mobile phone with a smartphone at the time.
“Why change it if it was not broken? I work on my computer every day and do not need to go on the Internet on my mobile phone,” she said.
Luo migrated to 4G last year and now owns an HTC smartphone, but she said she switches off the 4G network most of the time and connects to the Internet when Wi-Fi is available.
Although she is subscribed to a 200-megabyte monthly data plan, she said she barely uses half of the amount.
“If telecom companies want their customers to switch to 3G or 4G services, they have to offer tiered plans. Not everyone wants unlimited data,” she said.
This is not the first time the government is shutting down an outdated telecom service. The pager service, which was launched in Taiwan in 1976, stayed operational until September 2011.
Statistics from the NCC showed that the pager service reached its peak in 1998, with 4.26 million users. The number gradually decreased due to the rise of smaller and more practical mobile phones.
In January 2011, Chunghwa Telecom said it still had about 76 pager subscribers, 33 of them corporate users.
When asked why these users did not switch to mobile phones, the company said they probably preferred pagers because they did not generate intense electromagnetic waves, which some claim to be a health hazard.
Using pagers also gave them the liberty to ignore calls they did not wish to take, the company added.
However, serving those 76 subscribers was not cheap, the company said, as it has to keep the facilities needed to maintain the service.
Former NCC vice chairman Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said there are other reasons some people fall behind when a new telecom service is introduced.
“The nation has many rules to protect consumers. To cancel a telephone service, people have to go to a service counter and cancel the number themselves. If they cannot do it themselves, telecom companies still require the IDs of the subscribers as well as the people representing them to cancel that number,” he said.
“Some people have car telephones that use 2G services. Since they are still using the phones, they do not see the point of changing the number,” Yu said.
Asked what the government should do with 2G subscribers who are reluctant to migrate to a new service, Yu said the government needs to show its determination to resolve the issue.
“You can look at this matter from two perspectives. One is that the nation still has about 400,000 2G users and their needs cannot be ignored. However, if you look at it from another perspective, telecom companies still have to keep 2G base stations for these users, although they are in the minority. Because 2G is a relatively old technology, the base stations are less energy efficient than those of 3G or 4G. Using scarce radio frequency to serve only a few people who rarely use their phones would be a waste of resources,” he said.
The Executive Yuan last year granted subsidies to people upgrading to 4G services through a comprehensive incentive plan, Yu said.
While it succeeded in motivating some people to switch to the more advanced telecom service, Yu said those who refused to switch despite the subsidy are less likely to switch now as the subsidy is no longer available.
However, the government should not delay shutting down the service any longer, he said.
“You would still have 100,000 to 200,000 2G users if you wait another year or two to shut it down. This service would continue to stay if the government wants to please a few people,” Yu said.
He also commented on a proposal to consolidate the 2G subscribers in Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far Eastone Telecommunications, and outsource the service to Asia-Pacific Telecom (APT), which is building a 2G network using a portion of the 4G bandwidth it acquired through an auction by the NCC.
“The question is whether APT would accept the deal and whether the three main carriers would let APT have their customers. I doubt they would voluntarily give away the customers. It is likely that they will want to keep the customers and pay APT to serve them. APT, on the other hand, could accept the offer if it thinks that the pricing is reasonable and would increase its bottom line,” he said.
Another important factor in the proposal is whether the government thinks that it is an efficient use of network frequency, Yu said, adding that the government would not want people complaining that they cannot use their phones after June 30.
NCC spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said the key is whether telecom companies can reach a consensus on the direction that the industry is heading.
“The revenue that telecom companies make from voice communication services is down and it would be a waste of resources if they keep their 2G licenses. Meanwhile, their profits would continue to fall if they keep offering unlimited data plans to mobile Internet users. The government would act flexible in handling the issue, but what matters is that they would have to come to an agreement first,” Wong said.
Wong said it should be easier for telecom carriers to persuade their customers to upgrade their service, with the availability of low-rate service plans, low-priced mobile phones and applications like Line and Facebook.
A majority of 2G users are customers of Chunghwa Telecom, with 326,000 subscribers.
“Our goal is to migrate all of them to a more advanced service by June 30,” Chunghwa Telecom’s mobile business president Tu Yuan-kuang (涂元光) said. “We will gauge the needs of our customers and consider working with APT if needed.”
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