China Mobile shuts down 3G base stations: is it a forced push for 4G or a helpless move?

This article is transferred from: Netease Technology Original title: "China Mobile shuts down 3G base stations: is it a forced push for 4G or a helpless move?"

With the popularity of 4G, more and more mobile phone users have switched from 3G to 4G. Among the three major operators, the one with the best 4G development is China Mobile, which has deep pockets. Due to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issuing TD-LTE licenses in advance, China Mobile's 4G users exceeded 330 million in just two years. This number not only leaves its competitors far behind, but also allows China Mobile to completely get rid of the burden of "slow network speed and few terminals" in the 3G era.

With the rapid growth of 4G users, the number of 3G users of China Mobile has also begun to decline sharply. According to public data, as of January 2016, the number of 3G users of China Mobile was only 163 million, and the traffic carried by 3G networks was less than 20% of the total traffic. As the importance of 3G networks declines, news that China Mobile plans to shut down low-traffic TD-SCDMA base stations has also circulated on the Internet. In other words, TD-SCDMA, which claims to have independent intellectual property rights, may exit the stage of history earlier than GSM.

Shutting down 2G networks has become an international trend

In fact, it is not uncommon for operators to shut down a communication network. Since 1991, 2G networks based on GSM have been widely deployed around the world. As a communication standard, GSM was originally designed to meet the needs of making calls. However, with the booming development of the Internet, people's demand for data services has begun to increase, and the GSM network cannot meet such needs. In addition, GSM also has security issues, and fake base stations that exploit GSM vulnerabilities are the main source of spam text messages. In order to completely solve these problems, most operators around the world are trying their best to migrate 2G users to 3G after deploying 3G networks.

Today, most of the world's operators have deployed 3G networks for more than 10 years, and there are only a few 2G users. GSM equipment, which was deployed earlier than 3G, is even more outdated, so it is natural for them to choose to withdraw from the network. In fact, operators in many countries and regions, including the United States, Singapore, Australia, and Macau, have announced that they will shut down their GSM networks before 2017. It has also become a consensus among most operators around the world to shut down the outdated 2G network as soon as possible.

Why did China Mobile do the opposite?

Since most of the global operators have chosen to shut down their 2G networks as soon as possible, why did China Mobile choose to do the opposite and shut down its more advanced 3G network? In fact, due to the delay in issuing 3G licenses, most of China Mobile's users are still using 2G networks. Even after obtaining the TD-SCDMA 3G license, "slow network speed and poor terminal quality" is still a major problem that plagues China Mobile. The defects of TD-SCDMA also make people stay away from China Mobile 3G. A large number of China Mobile users would rather use the slower EDGE than switch to TD-SCDMA, and the usage load of the TD-SCDMA network is far less than that of GSM.

In order to solve this problem, China Mobile, which is rich in financial resources, has tried various methods. On the one hand, China Mobile has invested heavily in building millions of WiFi hotspots across the country. The launch of these WiFi hotspots has indeed played a role in diverting the high data pressure of the 2G network. On the other hand, China Mobile has built a large number of TD-LTE test networks across the country in the name of "independent intellectual property rights". In order to support the 4G standard of "independent intellectual property rights", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued TD-LTE licenses early. With the support of licenses and networks, China Mobile began to migrate users to 4G networks in large numbers. With the diversion of 4G and WiFi, the number of users of the TD-SCDMA network has also dropped significantly. The average daily traffic of TD-SCDMA base stations in many areas is even less than 100MB.

With the widespread deployment of TD-LTE base stations, the coverage level of China Mobile's 4G network has exceeded that of the original TD-SCDMA. The popularity of 4G mobile phones has led to a rapid increase in the number of users, and the traffic carried by the 3G network is also decreasing. The cost of operating 2G, 3G, and 4G networks nationwide is naturally high. Closing TD-SCDMA base stations with low daily traffic can not only reduce the operating costs of the network, but also reuse the TD-SCDMA frequency for the deployment of TD-LTE. For China Mobile, TD-SCDMA has ended its historical mission, and it is inevitable to shut it down as soon as possible. The closure of the 3G network can not only reduce costs, but also promote the migration of users to 4G, thereby driving the use of traffic, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

How should consumers’ interests be protected?

Although China Mobile can rely on 2G and 4G networks to carry the voice and data needs of 828 million users, for consumers, simply shutting down TD-SCDMA base stations may lead to a series of problems. On the one hand, there are still more than 160 million users on the 3G network. Once the 3G base stations are shut down, these users will have to return to the 2G network. In the context of shutting down 2G networks all over the world, China Mobile has gone the other way and pushed the pressure of data services to the outdated 2G network. Not only will the user experience be greatly reduced, but it may also affect the use of voice services. On the other hand, in order to support the 3G standard with "independent intellectual property rights", the state has provided China Mobile with many preferential measures (for example, the call settlement fee for TD-exclusive 157,188 number segments is only one-fifth of that for other number segments). If China Mobile begins to gradually shut down TD-SCDMA base stations across the country, these support measures will also be difficult to sustain. Once the settlement fee increases, can consumers who have already enjoyed the discount continue to enjoy the low-priced call service? The answer is probably no (think about the unlimited data packages back then). For consumers, China Mobile's shutdown of TD-SCDMA base stations may not be a good thing.

Summarize:

For consumers, TD-SCDMA is always an indelible pain. For China Mobile, TD-SCDMA is more like a strategy to deal with competitors. By using the "independent intellectual property rights" 3G standard, China Mobile not only won the exclusive use of CMMB (the mobile TV service launched by the radio and television) and many support policies including TD exclusive settlement fees, but also forced Xiaolingtong, which still had nearly 70 million users at the time, to withdraw from the network ahead of schedule. The withdrawal of Xiaolingtong not only caught competitors off guard, but also caused a large number of complaints from consumers. However, the frequency band resources originally used for Xiaolingtong were not used by TD-SCDMA as promised. On the contrary, TD-SCDMA also went on the road of withdrawal from the network. Whether we like it or not, the fate of TD-SCDMA is already doomed.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.