Singapore is completely killing off its 2G services

As one of the world’s to city-states and the most connected nation on the planet, Singapore doesn’t have much need for outdated 2G mobile services. Nowadays, such services are only used in developing nations and very rural areas, of which Singapore is neither, which is why the country has announced that it’ll be completely phasing out 2G service on April 1, 2017.

Singapore’s three telecommunications operators said they would stop providing older second-generation (2G) mobile technology services in the wealthy city state from April 1, 2017, as rising smartphone ownership has led to higher data usage rates. “To cater for consumers’ increased demand for mobile data and faster access speeds, the spectrum currently used for 2G will be used to provide faster, more advanced 3G and 4G services,” Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, M1 Ltd and StarHub Ltd said in a statement. The companies said only a very small percentage of customers remained on 2G-only mobile devices. Singapore, with a population of 5.5 million, had an annual mobile phone penetration rate of 148 percent in 2014, up from 92.7 percent in 2004, according to the Infocomm Development Authority. (Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)