Macau, the number of prepaid SIM accounts continues to decline sharply. A year-on-year decrease of 50% in December 2021-the impact of the coronal disaster, such as the reduction in entry or the introduction of a real-name registration system

Macau prepaid SIM card vending machine (data)

　According to the latest communications statistics released by the Macao Government Statistical investigation Bureau on January 28th, the number of mobile phone accounts in Macao as of the end of December last year (2021) was 1.27 million 4747, down 21.4% from the same month last year. However, Macau has a population of about 680000. The background of the fact that the number of mobile phone accounts has greatly exceeded the population is the popularity of lock-free terminals and prepaid SIM cards. Vending machines with prepaid SIM cards are arranged all over the city and can be easily purchased and recharged in supermarkets and convenience stores. The number of mobile phone accounts mentioned above also included prepaid SIM cards, which decreased by 50% from the same month last year to 390000 3962, accounting for 30.9% of the total. On the other hand, the number of accounts with contracts increased by 5.7%. Macao, Hong Kong and China are all China, but Macao has 853, Hong Kong is 852, and China is 86, which is an inherent country (region) code number for international calls. When overseas visitors to Macao, including mainland China and Hong Kong, use mobile phones, they will be regarded as international roaming and communication fees are expensive. Therefore, it has become common for Macao to purchase prepaid SIM cards sold by Macau Communications companies upon arrival. In fact, the number of prepaid SIM accounts in Macao has continued to decline since the end of 2019, accounting for less than 50% of the total number of mobile phone users in October 2020. One of the backgrounds is that, as part of a new coronal epidemic prevention strategy, there has been a reduction in the number of inbound passengers due to the strengthening of waterside measures. In addition, in Macao, since the Cyber Security Law came into effect on December 22, 2019, the real-name registration system of prepaid SIM cards sold by Macau telecom operators was launched. After the same day, when you buy a new prepaid SIM card, you need to register under your real name when you activate it. The use of an open prepaid card SIM card also needs to go through supplementary real name registration procedures, and the deadline of October 17, 2020 can also be said to be an important reason. Recently, the free Wi-Fi service jointly provided by the government and the private sector in Macao has also continued to expand its hotspots. In addition, as of the end of December last year, the number of fixed telephone accounts in Macao fell 6.8 per cent from the same period last year to 99989, while the number of Internet registered accounts increased by 6.3 per cent to 670000 1805. The total Internet use time in a single month in December was 140 million hours, down 4.4% from January to December to 1.66 billion hours, an increase of 0.4%. It is worth mentioning that Hong Kong has also gradually implemented the real-name registration system of prepaid SIM cards since September 1 last year.