In fact, as early as January of this year, there was media exposure, Unicom has begun to gradually deploy 2G network decommissioning. Recently, Unicom will expand the scope of deployment, a comprehensive requirement for the market to prohibit the development of 2G business.
According to insiders of Unicom, currently, Unicom's 2G customers account for about 2% of the total number of customers. By the end of 2017, China Unicom's number of users has reached 280 million, and the number of 2G customers is currently around 5 million. If 2G is fully 'retired', it may be This means that 5 million users cannot pass.
Telecom analyst Feng Yuanjiang told Sina Technology that the reason why Unicom shut down 2G may include three reasons. First, in order to transfer spectrum resources, Unicom will shift the resources of 2G network to 4G, which will benefit the development of the industry. This will greatly reduce maintenance costs. Third, last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had issued a document allowing operators to deploy NB-IoT systems on the GSM band. Since then, China Mobile has built 4G-based NB-IoT networks on the original 2G band. It is said that 900Mhz and 1800Mhz for deploying 2G networks are regarded as high-quality bands, which are also urgently needed by Unicom. For these reasons, China Unicom chose to shut down 2G networks. However, shutting down 2G is not a domestic precedent. Among foreign operators, this This practice is more common.
It is reported that at the end of 2017, China still has 1.57 million 2G base stations, 290 million 2G users, and massive IoT devices that rely on 2G networks, and 2G retreats from the network.