this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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113
Hundreds complain about failing mobile phone service since 3G switched off (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Regulatory intervention is supposed to happen before the issue occurs, not after...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It was Regulatory intervention that caused this problem.

Government: “you need to make sure that your subscribers can access 000” Telcos: “we can only do this if we disconnect 3G” G: “that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever but we will believe you and give you carte blanche to ~~screw over your customers~~ comply with regulatory requirements”

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The problem was that some handsets (including ones sold by the networks as "4G") would drop to 3G for 000. Even same models on different firmware behaved differently. So the regulator said to ban any the networks weren't 100% sure were compatible. With 30(?) days' notice. And the online IMEI checker is incomplete/useless too. So now the only realistic place for average consumers to buy known-compatible handsets is from the network operators. At their prices, with their software.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

…And the governments Knee-jerk legislation was due to the Telcos not investing enough in redundancy.

When a little bit of a wind can bring down the mobile network, maybe it is time to build more cell towers and make sure they have a stable battery backup.

I had a family member recently purchase an imported Lawn Mower and its Wireless features bought down his local cell network.

IANA Telecommunications Engineer, but making critical Infrastructure secure and redundant should be a high priority.

The Mirboo North outage and the mower issue only effected one of the 3 mobile network providers; starting with O and ending in S.