Several articles talk about the end of 3G communications these days, such as
I’m no techie, and still use my 3G “dumb” phone, does this mean I need to get a new phone or just that the telcom companies will incorporate 3G into their 4G communications, and end users don’t need a new phone?
In the TT article it says “However, users of 3G might need to change to 4G SIM cards if they want to continue using their 3G cellphones after the telecoms’ licenses expire, he said.”
So it sounds like you can still use a 3G phone, just change SIM card, and contract? What about prepaid IF service?
3g phoned cannot use 4g networks, regardless of sim card. I’m not sure what that article means, but if all 3g networks are switched off, no 3g only phones can work any more. Simple, technical fact. (The receive/send part doesn’t work with 4g, it’s a different and incompatible technology)
Seems like there is some “backup plan” to keep a kind of 3g network operating. Maybe only for voice, not data. SMS? No idea. But seems like not a complete switching off of 3g. The news are quite unclear on that… I’ll to find out more…
I use 3g and have a basic plan since I first got the number - phone calls and sms. I have no interest in being able to use the internet on my phone (I can use WiFi for that if needed - barely ever). I barely use the phone as it is and leave it at home some days.
After seeing more frequent text messages reminding me the change comes at the end of the year, I went to the Da Ga Da store. The guy spoke a little English and my Chinese is not good enough to talk about phone contracts etc. (He had some colleague over asking her and she could not understand why someone would not care about not needing the internet on my phone). They told me I would need to sign a new contract for 2 years at least.
I don’t want to sign a 2 year contract. I want to continue paying 200/month for what I have now.
I guess I will have to call their customer service number up and find out if there are actually other options.
You will likely have to sign some form of contract to sign up again for 4G service.
They’ll give you a new 4G SIM card (keep your 3G SIM card in case your contacts are on that card, for which they can help transfer contacts from SIM to SIM).
My CHT bill went from NT$183 per month in the most basic/cheapest rate for 3G to now NT$199 per month for 4G (500MB of download per month! Yeah, so much, ha ha. 20mins of calls or something).
I had choice of signing 1 or 2 years.
I believe 亞太電信, Asia-Pacific Online, has a new deal just this week (八八節).
NT$377 for 7G of download per month.
Otherwise, go with any of the other telecoms for like NT$499 per month of unlimited (signed contract, likely 2 years).
I am assuming that the 3G towers will be turned off, so my phone needs to support 4G.
It is an HTC U11 Ultra, Dual Sim. One slot supports 4/3/2G, the other 3/2G. So I assume that only one will be working from January 1. Both Cards (one is FET, the other Telstra in Australia) support 4G as they have been used on 4G with the 4G Data icon showing,
Partner is Tech Illiterate and in a Blind Panic, having been conned by a FET salesman into buying a new phone when 2G closed down a couple of years ago as one slot in the phone then was 2G only and was the one supporting the FET SIM.
Yes, it can still be used as a single SIM phone by switching the SIM slot as required.
Well 3G is still working for Phone/Text on both FET and Chunghwa…
And FET at least still seems to still have 3G working for Data - I switched that SIM to 3G Only and could still browse the Web - icon showing was either “3G” or “H”.