Life in Singapore for Immigrants: Singapore's three major telecommunications operators, Singtel, M1, and StarHub, jointly announced on the 15th that the three companies will stop providing 2G mobile services starting from April 2017. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore has approved the request from the three companies.
The three telecommunications operators stated in the announcement that currently, the majority of users in Singapore are using 3G or 4G services, and only a very small portion of users are still using 2G devices. Based on user usage patterns, they will terminate 2G voice, SMS, and data services starting from April 2017 and will notify potentially affected users through various channels.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore believes this decision takes into account technological advancements and the reality that consumers have shifted to 3G and 4G services. The 3G services provided by the three telecommunications operators already cover 99% of Singapore; outdoors, 4G service coverage has also reached 98%.
Currently, there are approximately 250,000 2G mobile service users in Singapore, accounting for only 3% of the 8 million mobile users. 50% of 2G users are foreign workers, and other users include the elderly and parents who have signed mobile service contracts for their children.
Singapore is not the first country to terminate 2G mobile services; some operators in South Korea and Japan terminated 2G services as early as 2012, and Telstra in Australia plans to terminate 2G services by the end of 2016.
