The Macau government has confirmed that mobile operators' 3G licenses will be retired next year.
The 3G licenses will expire on June 4, 2025, officials said, and services will cease to operate from that date.
In its announcement, the government encouraged the country's mobile operators to prepare for the cessation of 3G network operations.
"The Postal and Telecommunications Services Bureau (CTT) urges citizens and companies that use the 3G service to contact their respective operator as soon as possible in order to find out the conditions for transitioning to the 4G or 5G service," said the government.
Earlier this year, SmarTone announced its sudden departure from Macau's mobile market, meaning that only three carriers remain in the market; CTM, China Telecom, and 3 Macau.
To support the migration away from the legacy 3G networks, the government noted that telcos should move their customers to devices that support 4G or 5G technology instead.
A number of countries and telcos across the world have moved away from 3G mobile networks, in favor of pushing 4G and 5G technologies.
Several mobile carriers have shut off their 3G networks this year, including both Vodafone and EE in the UK, plus Australian carriers Telstra and Optus.
The legacy technology is less energy efficient than the more recent mobile generations, despite accounting for significantly less traffic.
Source: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/macau-will-switch-off-3g-in-2025/