Most Macau telcos to exceed required 4G network coverage this year

Most of the city’s telecommunications operators will launch network coverage to provide fourth-generation wireless (4G) telecommunications services beyond 50 per cent of the city within this year as required by the government, although the timeframe for when the 4G services can come online has yet to be announced. As announced by the Official Gazette yesterday, the city’s dominant telco Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau SARL (CTM), China Telecom (Macau) Company Ltd., Hutchison Telephone (Macau) Company Ltd. and Smartone – Mobile Communications (Macau) Ltd. have been approved to provide 4G services to the city under a licence that is valid for eight years. In setting up the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network for launching the 4G services, as well as the related network expansion and upgrade that follows, the city will see a total of about MOP1.28 billion investment committed by these four operators for 2015-2018, according to the information published by the Official Gazette. To Business Daily’s understanding, successful 4G licence awardees CTM, China Telecom and Hutchison Macau will exceed 50 per cent of network coverage within this year. The government requires the telecom operators to achieve half of the city’s network coverage for 4G services within this year, and a 100 per cent coverage in 2016. CTM, which said before that it plans to achieve 90 per cent of network coverage upon launching 4G services this year, is the telco with the biggest committed investment in setting up an LTE network and other related enhancements that amount to MOP485 million for 2015-2018, closely followed by China Telecom at a committed investment of MOP471 million for these four years. Fast as you can But CTM is the only telco that adopts both the frequency division duplex (FDD) technique and time division duplex (TDD) technique for launching the 4G services, according to the Official Gazette. The adoption of both techniques by CTM can support a download speed that can top up to 300 Mbps and an upload speed of 75 Mbps. Before casting its bid for a 4G licence, the vice president of network services at CTM, Declan Leong, told media in September that the telco expected that the service charges for 4G services would not be more expensive than for 3G services. Upon Business Daily’s enquiry, the four telecom operators said they will announce the exact timeframe for launching the 4G services this year plus related tariff. As required by the government, the 4G licence awardees must practise the alert service to users when they exceed a prescribed monthly data volume. The operators must also compensate their users in event of accidents that largely affect network operation and other related services, the Gazette stated.