DICT wants telcos to retire 2G technology

MANILA, Philippines — With 2G technologies providing a venue for scammers, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) wants telecommunications companies to do away with the old technology.

According to DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy, they are talking to telco providers through the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on the need to retire technologies that are below 3G.

“We should now have a timeline to retire (2G technology),” Dy said in a news forum at the Dapo Restaurant and Bar in Quezon City.

He explained scammers usually send malicious messages on cell phones with 2G technology using international mobile subscriber identity-catchers, which are among the gadgets commonly found in illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator hubs.

However, Dy clarified the phaseout of 2G technologies will not happen overnight, as he underscored there are implications to their request.

Among these are the possibility that telcos might increase the cost of text messages.

“We need to start the discussion of retiring anything that is below 3G in cellular mobile telecommunications, perhaps in the next two years,” Dy said.

Once 2G technology is gone, he expects scam texts to significantly go down.

Dy noted that scammers have yet to penetrate 3G and 4G technologies.