Will the countdown to 3G shutdown trigger a wave of phone replacement across all networks?

On May 5, China Telecom recently issued an announcement: Due to network upgrades and technology updates, the roaming services of some old mobile phone users in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be affected from June 1, 2017. To ensure normal use, it is recommended that users replace their old mobile phones and UIM cards with those that support overseas roaming before leaving the country.

On the other hand, in 2016-2017, with the extensive publicity of the two major domestic operators, all-network mobile phones entered the public eye and attracted attention. With the increasingly accelerated pace of global CDMA network shutdowns, a new round of mobile phone replacement has been triggered, and all-network mobile phones that support all global frequency bands will also usher in hot speculation.

Countdown to CDMA shutdown

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Relying on the CDMA network in the 800MHz frequency band, China Telecom won in the 3G era with its "strong signal". However, at the "Tianyi Smart Terminal Trade Fair" in the summer of 2016, China Telecom released a signal: it would start building an LTE network in the 800MHz frequency band, and achieve the first LTE network built on a low-frequency band in China. The industry believes that this means that China Telecom is considering giving up CDMA. In particular, Yang Jie, chairman of China Telecom, publicly stated that China Telecom has started to replant the entire 800MHz LTE network, freeing up the frequencies originally used for CDMA for LTE, which has led to rumors in the industry that China Telecom will shut down its CDMA network.

On the other hand, according to a research report by Ovum, a British technology market research company, from a global perspective, second-generation networks such as GSM and CDMA still contribute a lot of revenue to mobile operators through voice calls, text messages, roaming fees, etc., which will become a barrier to shutting down the network. The agency predicts that the complete disappearance of 2G networks worldwide may have to wait until around 2020.

For China Telecom, the decision to abandon the CDMA frequency band is mainly because the network speed of CDMA and CDMA2000 is only applicable to the past 2G/3G standards, and is no longer applicable to the high-speed network of the 4G era. With the development of 4G LTE technology, China Telecom can also use existing technology to upgrade CDMA base stations distributed across the country to VoLTE networks, so it will not cause poor signal problems. The shutdown of CDMA has become an inevitable trend.

Although China Telecom's attitude so far is that the 800MHz re-cultivation will not affect China Telecom users' existing mobile voice and mobile data services, and there is no plan to withdraw from the CDMA network. However, with the advent of the 3G and 4G eras, more and more countries and telecommunications companies around the world have shut down CDMA networks. Under this trend, Chinese operators are not far away from shutting down 2G.

The wave of replacement of mobile phones ushers in a new spring of full network access

Recently, China Telecom Co., Ltd. issued an announcement: Due to network upgrades and technology updates, starting from June 1, 2017, the roaming services of some old mobile phone users in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan will be affected. To ensure normal use, it is recommended that users replace their phones and UIM cards with Tianyi phones that support overseas roaming before leaving the country. This means that China Telecom will soon shut down overseas CDMA roaming except for Macau, and the CDMA network withdrawal plan is accelerating.

However, the policy also fits in with China Telecom's plan to promote all-network access. It is understood that true all-network access supports all frequency bands in the world. The more frequency bands there are, the more signals can be used when roaming abroad, truly realizing the goal of "one phone for all".

"Some users of old mobile phones have their roaming services in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan affected. To ensure normal use, it is recommended that they replace them with Tianyi phones that support overseas roaming." The resulting wave of phone replacement will drive the hot sales of all network-communicable products.

According to the six-mode all-network terminal action promotion plan jointly released by China Telecom and China Unicom, on the basis of the national standard, the enterprise standard has been refined and updated, evolving from all-network 1.0 to all-network 2.0, making the terminal support more frequency bands. The standard also adds new functions such as 4G+, VoLTE, and dual-card blind insertion, which can support 410 operator networks worldwide and meet roaming needs in 99% of the world's coverage areas.

On the other hand, China Telecom and China Unicom have also increased their cooperation in channel sales, jointly promoting full network access with channel partners and terminal manufacturers. It is understood that after the release of the action plan to promote six-mode full network access terminals, China Telecom and China Unicom's provincial branches have actively held various forms of ordering meetings to increase the marketing and publicity of six-mode full network access. The industry believes that with the rhythm of the closure of CDMA network roaming, it can kill two birds with one stone and drive the sales of full network access.