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Taiwan To Shut Down 3G Networks By Year End (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Consumers in Taiwan will only be able to use 4G services from 2019 as the government will shut down 3G services by the end of the year, according to a Sina news report on Monday, citing local Taiwan media reports. From a report: Although the vast majority of the population in Taiwan have shifted to 4G networks, there are still around 200,000 consumers using 3G. This has prompted local carriers to roll out incentives and promotions to get 3G users to shift onto the latest 4G plans. Taiwan's latest move to shut down 3G networks follows its earlier decision to remove all 2G networks on July 1, 2017, as local regulators and telecom operators continue to actively push for the development of 4G network coverage. As of March this year, the number of 4G users has already exceeded the population in Taiwan, said the report. The number of 3G users has declined to some 228,000 people in mid-November from 5.5 million in 2017.

38 comments

  1. 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fred6666 · · Score: 1

    Are they shutting down an EVDO network? Or are they turning off HSPA?
    The implications are not the same.

    1. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Anything that isn't LTE.

    2. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It helps to actually RTFA instead of just trying to get Fr0st P1st.

    3. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      so they are going to use VoLTE for voice calls?

    4. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Correct.

    5. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by quenda · · Score: 1

      4G has been around a while, but isn't VoLTE - voice over LTE - only a few years old?
      Many handsets still rely on 3G for voice calls, while using 4G LTE for data.
      Not in Taiwan?

    6. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      In Taiwan everyone has a VoLTE handset.

    7. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fred6666 · · Score: 2

      that's a bit old, but that's not what they say in this article:
      http://www.telecomreviewasia.c...

    8. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      If you still have 3G it will fallback to circuit switched for voice. But no one is going to do that. There aren't very many 3G users left and they will all switch as soon as their services stop working. LTE is the present and the future!

    9. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      my point was that I am not convinced they will indeed turn off UMTS voice by the end of the year. That article from January says the opposite.
      It looks like they might be turning off HSPA data however, and force people to use LTE for data.

    10. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Not voice, voice will have fallbacks, but data. No one uses networks for voice only in 2018.

    11. Re: 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fubarrr · · Score: 1

      China telecom does

    12. Re: 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Not next year. We are living in the future now.

    13. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by fred6666 · · Score: 1

      So they are not turning off 3G, TFS is wrong. Might have been clearer if they just said they shut off HSPA data.

    14. Re: 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not next year. We are living in the future now.

      We're living in the present now :-)

    15. Re: 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is this, Spaceballs: The Move? When will that happen?

    16. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i still do since flip phone is 3G. its good enough for me for my use.

      However, company gave me 4gLTE iphone 8, but it just sits on charger all day.
      I've played with it and got bored with it. Battery doesn't last very long, and my cheap flip phone
      lasts at least one day before needing charging.

      So the smartphone gets alot of spam texts and phone calls from verizon saying turn in your equipment,
      and other billing info. Hmm, verizon service bugging me to death. So its just a big spam collector for
      the bots out there which I can't block fast enough.......

      The other issue with smartphones, is if you look at the news to read the text, all the embedded videos start automatically
      playing even when one isn't on that part of the scrolled screen. THus, those forced videos are just eating up the montly
      data alottment whether I want it to play or not. Moreover, when one accidently hits a page advertisement, the advertiser
      provides no way back to the previous website webpage - hence get stuck/trapped on advertisers website with the only way to get off of it is to shutdown the phone since closing and reopening the app only takes you back to the page one was viewing which is the advertiser webpage....

    17. Re:3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always disable that flaky VoLTE garbage so I can use the real mobile line that I pay for.

    18. Re: 3G and 4G doesn't mean much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where did China Telecom say they were abandoning voice networks?

  2. Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by TWX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Taiwan really doesn't want embedded systems, fire alarm dialers, security systems, and a whole host of other SCADA or EMS systems to use the cellular network, does it?

    Those kinds of devices aren't swapped-out as often as people replace their cell phones. Probably need a ten year service life out of 'em to justify the costs to use that technology instead of good old-fashioned copper landlines, and since they're often in life-safety applications they need a longer dev cycle to be reliable enough.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re: Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by io333 · · Score: 1

      Hopefully the carriers will have expensive solutions to offer consumers to do what was previously inexpensive.

    2. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      In Taiwan those systems were swapped out for LTE-M a long time ago. It is 2018. Time to move on.

    3. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by tbuddy · · Score: 1

      I feel like you're trying to rain on everyone's parade of living in the US and giving out excuses for issues that boil down to companies having been too cheap to make infrastructure improvements or replace long since antiqued systems.

    4. Re: Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2G and 3G networks don't have surveillance capabilities like more modern 4G network elements. If that is not the reason then it must be radio frequency or simply maintenance costs.

    5. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      I'm just kidding. I don't even know what LTE is really.

    6. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by TWX · · Score: 1

      And if those systems work and are secure, why exactly would companies spend extra in order to swap them out in order to achieve, from the business' point of view, identical service?

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    7. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Because the networks they operate on no longer exist.

    8. Re: Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by TWX · · Score: 1

      By, "security systems," I meant the dialer that contacts the security company when someone trips a door, window, or motion sensor. I wasn't referring to cameras, bandwidth for those is far too high to be practical. When the security company gets an alert, if they have on-site cameras/monitoring then they'll connect to the NVR system and start monitoring over VPN to the site's network over the regular corporate network.

      These kinds of dialers use cellular or copper landlines because the power redundancy to run them is simple and can be entirely contained within the controller's housing. If one attempted to use the corporate network then a lot of other devices would also need to be on battery backup, but with the battery in the housing, the security company can change batteries on a schedule and only have to touch one battery per site or per building, and they don't have to rely on any other entities like the IT department to keep switches and routers running. So in a nutshell if the site loses power, the security system or fire alarm system stay running and can still report events.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    9. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by tepples · · Score: 2

      Because newer technology can accommodate more simultaneous users on the same amount of valuable radio frequency spectrum.

    10. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      In Taiwan those systems were swapped out for LTE-M a long time ago. It is 2018. Time to move on.

      Funny enough, in Canada we have problems where a software update made a Samsung phone unable to call 911. It got so bad that the provider was forced to move everyone with that phone model from LTE to 3G just so they can make 911 calls reliably, until Samsung issues a fix for the problem.

      Crap happens, even today.

    11. Re:Embedded sytems and non-phone devices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To add to that humor, as it were, there was another phone that had the same problem. It was the ASUS ZenFone 3.
      Went back to Canada with that phone and I got a text saying that because I had updated my phone to Android 7
      I may have problems dialing 911. I called up the company about this and within 2-3 days I got an update for
      my phone that fixed this problem.

  3. How about forcing upgrades from Windows XP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's strange that perfectly usable 3G phones are getting the chop while insecure Windows XP machines have a significant market share.

    1. Re: How about forcing upgrades from Windows XP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Waaaaaay off topic.

  4. Wired ISPs' cap is 100 times as high by tepples · · Score: 1

    No one uses networks for voice only in 2018.

    Then I must be no one. Where I live, a cellular ISP's monthly hotspot data transfer allotment tends to be orders of magnitude less than what a wired ISP offers: 10 GB per month for cellular vs. 1000 GB per month for wired. This is why I subscribe to cellular voice through T-Mobile USA and wired home data through the local cable company and tolerate loss of connection while riding in a moving vehicle.

    Or did you specifically mean "no one in Taiwan"? If so, how does ISP pricing in Taiwan differ in a way that would affect this?

  5. Habit after encountering too many paywalls by tepples · · Score: 1

    With the recent rise in paywalled links from Slashdot stories, it becomes cost-prohibitive for everyone to read the article before participating. Though this particular article is not behind a paywall, the substantial fraction of other articles that are behind a paywall or "disable your antivirus" wall (or both in the case of MIT Tech Review) changes users' habits.

    1. Re:Habit after encountering too many paywalls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The OP was a karma whore post vying to be first. So nothing's changed since I started reading this site back in 2002.

  6. Remind me not to travel to Taiwan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about all the visitors roaming on to local networks?

    No mobile service for them...

  7. Huge problems by expresspotato · · Score: 1

    So if this is 4G = LTE, then this is an absolute nightmare for voice calls. Today at least phones need to be provisioned for VoLTE and it's not something that's as simple as GSM/UMTS/HSPA was. Essentially negotiate a few parameters and give me a channel to talk on seamlessly. When roaming anywhere I always drop off to HSPA to complete the call and here in my home country of Canada no 'International Version' of a cell phone will do HD Voice or VoLTE or LTE-A.