According to Zhejiang Unicom’s announcement, starting today, China Unicom’s 3G network in Zhejiang Province will completely withdraw from services. This means that terminal equipment, related tariff packages and SIM cards that only support 3G networks will no longer be able to use communication services such as voice calls and data Internet access.
Zhejiang China Unicom reminds users that if they are still using mobile phones and other terminal devices that only support 3G networks, they can replace them with 4G/5G compatible terminals by themselves, or they can go to the nearest China Unicom business hall to participate in terminal upgrade discount purchase activities.
China Unicom Zhejiang stated that China Unicom's 4G and 5G networks have now achieved deep coverage in all urban and rural areas of Zhejiang Province, and the network carrying capacity and service quality have continued to improve, which can meet users' daily communication needs such as calls and Internet access.
The shutdown of Zhejiang Unicom's 3G network also marks the final stage of China's WCDMA network elimination.
It is understood that WCDMA is the third generation mobile communication technology used by China Unicom, which is also known as Unicom 3G. It is a UMTS wireless interface standard based on the evolution of the GSM core network and was formulated by the 3GPP organization.
In January 2009, China Unicom obtained the WCDMA license; on May 17 of the same year, China Unicom 3G officially launched commercial trials. Since 2011, China Unicom has upgraded its 3G network to HSPA network in some cities.
With the full popularity of 4G and 5G networks, the number of users and usage scenarios carried by 3G networks continues to decrease, and withdrawal from services has become an inevitable step in the iteration process of mobile communication technology.