Telecommunications Regulation Bureau (DSRT) Director Horry Hoi Chi Leong said yesterday that the bureau has received 4G service charge plans from three of the city’s four telecom operators to provide the service, confirming the per unit data usage charge for the 4G service would be lower than for the current 3G service.
Hoi made the remark after officiating over the opening ceremony of yesterday’s 12th Asia-Pacific Telecommunication and ICT Development Forum at Macau’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
In Macau, four telecomm operators – CTM, Hutchison Telephone (Macau) Limited, China Telecom (Macau) Limited and SmarTone (Macau) – will provide 4G services. The four companies must provide their 4G service by the end of this year, according to their concession contracts.
CTM is the biggest local telecom company while Hutchison and SmarTone are Hong Kong-based companies and China Telecom (Macau) is a mainland-based company.
Asked by reporters about the latest developments of the 4G service, Leong said the bureau had already approved one telecom operator’s plans for its 4G service fees while the bureau was analyzing the tariff plans from two telecom operators while one had yet to submit theirs.
“The four telecom operators are free to set their prices for their 4G services…and come up with various 4G packages as long as the charge of the per unit data usage is lower than the 3G,” he said, adding that the current measures such as customers being allowed to set the maximum of data usage and check how much data usage they have used in real time would be in place for 4G service users as well.
Hoi also said that 4G service customers should be careful about their data usage.
This story first appeared in The Macau Post Daily.