CTM is investing two billion patacas in its 5G network over five years, Ebel Cham Pou I, the vice president for the telecom’s commercial affairs, told reporters yesterday.

Cham made the remarks on the sidelines of the company’s “5G Smart Solution Competition” press conference at the Macau Young Entrepreneur Incubation Centre (MYEIC) in Nape.

Cham said that the two billion pataca budget includes this year’s 600 million patacas being spent on the construction of the 5G network.

Cham said that at the beginning of next year CTM will have completed the whole 5G coverage construction. When asked how much a 5G mobile phone plan would cost, she said it depends on how many people were interested in upgrading their phone plans.

Last Tuesday, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said that a 5G network covering the whole city would need an investment of over three billion patacas. Ho said that the disadvantage of 5G is that the signal from a base station only coves a small area, and therefore a 5G network requires a large number of such stations. Ho said that for a 5G network to cover the whole city, it is estimated that 500 macro-base stations and 2,000 micro-base stations would be needed, requiring an investment of over three billion patacas.

When Cham was asked whether her company’s two billion pataca budget was related to the budget Ho mentioned last week, she said that CTM was focused on its own budget estimation and expecting to spend two billion patacas over five years in building a 5G network in Macau.

During yesterday’s event Cham said in a speech that in order to facilitate and encourage residents to participate in the development of “Digital Macau”, CTM has launched the “5G Smart Solution Competition” that aims to motivate local talents to develop smart solutions using 5G technology.

In her speech Cham noted that more than 100 local talents have registered to join the competition in different areas such as smart tourism, smart transportation, 5G intelligent real estate, smart airport, and aircraft management.

Cham told reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s event that she was most impressed by a project proposed by local secondary school pupils about constructing a “smart street pole” that could act as a digital police officer during an emergency. 

Ebel Cham Pou I, the vice president for CTM’s commercial affairs, talks to reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s press conference about the telecom’s “5G Smart Solution Competition”. Photo: Prisca Tang