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

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.

Comments

Embedded sytems and non-phone devices

[TWX]

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.