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Hundreds complain about failing mobile phone service since 3G switched off

In short:

Regional and rural Australians say their ability to make phone calls has dramatically reduced since the 3G network was switched off in October.

Telstra and Optus shut down 3G to boost the 4G and 5G networks, claiming customer coverage would benefit as a result.

What's next:

The federal government says there may be a need for regulatory intervention if the situation does not improve.

24 comments
  • This whole thing has been a mess. Thousands of Aussies had to buy new phones due to them using a phone allowlist instead of a blocklist (arguably they should have just let the phones stop working instead of blocking them outright). The allowlist they used was missing hundreds of 4G capable phones and was missing just about every overseas model of phone. I know 2 people whose phones were blocked for no reason.

    Tourists coming to Australia are finding their phones blocked here, preventing them from using their phones in Australia.

    000 calls are borked for thousands of Aussies as well.

    We are one of the only countries in the world to turn off 3G. And we're certainly the only one to fuck it up this badly. I'm convinced the big telcos only did this to drive phone sales (many of which will be bought/leased on exploitative plans), because god knows there's no other compelling reason to shut 3G off.

    What a joke.

  • Not to mention the thousands of phones that would be VoLTE capable but are blocked regardless...

    • This happened to me.

      I had a Oneplus 7 Pro. I turned 3G off before the shutdown and it was fine.

      Then Optus decided to brick my device because my phone wasn't on their list of compatible devices.

      Fucking assholes.

      I then put a friends Telstra sim in the phone to see if it would work, and it was bricked on the Telstra network too.

      Apparently I could roll the phone back two android versions, install a ROM I don't want, give it root privileges which I don't want, and fuck around with adb to make it work, but I shouldn't fucking have to.

      There should be a class action lawsuit for this shit. My phone was only five years old and worked fine.

      Thanks for turning what I assume is tens of thousands of phones into e-waste so some dickhead with the latest 5G iPhone can take up an extra kilobit of bandwidth.

      Happened two months ago, but I'm still mad.

  • The companies promised that reception would not go backwards and that if anything, customers would enjoy better connectivity.

    However, network providers are adamant there has been no change to coverage levels since the switch off.

    Am I missing something? Or did they just admit they shut down 3G for nothing.

    • I think they mean that it didn't get worse despite the 3G shutdown. Conveniently ignoring all the phones that now get no signal whatsoever.

      • I mean, evident by the fact that the 4G signal hasn't improved for many seems to suggest they were talking shit the whole time.

    • 3G was shut down so they can use the spectrum for other things.

24 comments