The government of Macau has renewed the 3G licences of the territory’s four mobile network operators – Companhia de Telecomunicacoes de Macau (CTM), Hutchison (3), Smartone and China Telecom (Macau) – until June 2023, on condition that the cellcos meet certain conditions. As reported by Macau Business Daily, starting in January 2015, operators will have to inform clients about their quantity of mobile data usage, while from April operators must ensure that, once a user’s mobile data limit has been reached, user confirmation will be required before allowing extra data usage. Additionally, from June 2015 operators are requested to provide information on data usage in real time. In case of delays in providing such information, no extra costs can be charged to clients. According to a statement on the website of sector regulator the Bureau of Telecommunications Regulation (DSRT), the government will also require the operators to ‘launch a customer protection mechanism with regard to faults in networks, encouraging them to continue to invest resources in improving network infrastructure’.
Additionally, the Macanese government confirmed its intention to continue 2G services running in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) to serve roaming tourists, and while the DSRT’s statement said it would review the situation in due course, it did not give a timeframe. TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that, as it stands, in June 2015 all local 2G mobile services in Macau are set to be switched off, and only 3G (and future 4G) services will be provided to Macanese users, but 2G roaming services for tourists are to remain on offer under previous agreements between the operators, regulator and government. CTM, 3 and SmarTone remain obliged to keep their 2G infrastructure active alongside their W-CDMA/HSPA networks for the time being (although subject to review by the DSRT), whilst China Telecom operates 3G-only CDMA-based services. Three of the cellcos’ existing 3G concessions were due to expire in June 2015, except SmarTone whose 3G licence runs until September 2017. The database shows that just 0.2% of Macau’s mobile subscribers remained on 2G services by end-September 2014.
The results of Macau’s 4G licence tender are expected in Q1 2015.
