Taiwan’s NCC urges 2G users to upgrade by June

Taiwan’s National Communications Commission has launched a new awareness campaign urging the nation’s remaining 2G subscribers to migrate to 3G or 4G before the 2G licenses expire on June 30.

The regulator has produced two TV commercials to spread awareness of the advantages of 4G and the necessity of migrating.

As of November there were around 430,000 remaining 2G subscribers, with 290,000 of these being Chunghwa Telecom customers and the remainder divided between Taiwan Mobile and Far EastTone.

While all Taiwan’s 2G licenses are set to expire on June 30, triggering the sunsetting of the technology, the regulator has decided to provide a six-month grace period after this date. This will allow any remaining 2G hold-outs to migrate to the newer standards before losing services.

The three operators are meanwhile offering low-price options to entice 2G users to upgrade.

Chunghwa Telecom, for example, is offering a special rate of NT$88 ($2.73) per month for customers upgrading from 2G to 4G, which includes 1.5GB of data, 30 minutes of intra-network calls and 5 minutes of cross-network calls.