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The Government is letting greeting telco companies charge ahead with the “3G shutdown”. This is deceptive because it is really a 4 and 5G shutdown as well.

The government quietly published a new rule that will force telco companies to block up to 250,000 perfectly functioning 4 and 5G mobile phones under the cover of the shutdown. This is a disaster and the government is letting telcos make billions while they abandon their customers.

⚠️ Attention

For people with some 4G and 5G phones or 3G phones and devices including health and safety monitors – the federal government is serving multinational corporations and risking hundreds of thousands of lives.

My successful senate motion initiated a senate inquiry into the Telstra-Optus shutdown of 3G networks. The inquiry exposed the fact that more than a million devices and phones would not work once 3G is shutdown, including emergency health devices and monitors – many 4G phones that depend on 3G network for 000 emergency calls.

The inquiry exposed that Labor Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland and her Department and Australian Communication & Media Authority (ACMA) were hopelessly ignorant of the threat to so many lives in Australia. And did not care.

The inquiry exposed the lack of standardisation and the incompatibility of 4G phones – a Telstra-Optus rort worth billions of dollars. It stops competition, limits customer choices and compromises safety.

In response to facts witnesses presented and were never refuted, the shutdown was delayed a token month. We learned that many other countries including the UK have decided to keep the 3G networks running for several more years. The premature 3G shutdown here is going ahead in just a few days!

A telco expert sent me a text message:

Just letting you know that Telstra has started blocking devices that actually work perfectly for 000 on 4G.

My devices were kicked off around 10 AM EST. I can’t even make an emergency call on Telstra’s network anymore with those devices. Just with Optus.

Telstra only notified customers about their devices being totally blocked on midday Friday with an SMS.

Many customers are now unable to contact anyone as they have no Data or SMS either.

Disgraceful. Inhuman. Irresponsible.

The federal government is serving corporations and risking lives.

Greedy telco companies are still pushing ahead with their plans to shutdown the 3G network. This is despite a million devices due to be affected include hundreds of thousands of 4G mobiles.

Pacemakers, medical alarms, EFTPOS machines and emergency phones in elevators are just the tip of the iceberg.

The Government must set minimum criteria and guarantees before allowing the shutdown to go ahead. Anything else prioritises telco profits above the lives of Australians.

Transcript

I move: That the Senate take note of the interim report. 

The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee’s inquiry into the 3G mobile network shutdown can claim a small victory, yet there will be no champagne corks popped. Telstra and Optus announced they will delay their 3G shutdown for two months. I called for a delay in March. I called for the 3G shutdown to be delayed until Australia was ready for the transition. 

The committee has been running an inquiry into the Telstra and Optus proposal that was established on my motion here in the Senate. That inquiry has revealed Australia is nowhere near ready to flick the switch on 3G, and there’s no hope that it can be fixed in just two months. It’s ridiculous. This short delay is nowhere near good enough. Before we can even consider going ahead with the 3G shutdown, the Minister for Communications, Minister Rowland, must intervene and set guarantees of minimum service thresholds on the telcos. It’s time to put Australian people above the telcos short-term company profits. 

The inquiry is ongoing, and given the shutdown deadline was rapidly approaching, the committee commendably issued this interim report. This inquiry discovered a tidal wave of disaster coming for business and Australians. The shutdown won’t just affect 3G mobiles, of which there are still hundreds of thousands in operation; it will affect 4G mobiles, even though many of those owners think they’re safe. 

As the committee notes: 

Furthermore, there are close to half a million non-mobile devices that will not function once the 3G network is shutdown. As an example, these include water and electricity meters, farming monitoring and diagnostic equipment, medical devices, emergency phones in elevators, in addition to safety and asset tracking devices. 

It goes on to say there are: 

… serious, and in some cases life threatening, impacts on people and organisations if these devices do not work after the shutdown. 

Telstra and Optus were at pains to point out how much money and time they had put into making customers aware. Despite these apparently huge efforts—highly ineffective efforts—the total number of mobile and non-mobile devices that the shutdown will affect is close to one million. The telco companies say they’re working on getting all of the 4G coverage up to the same level as 3G. They will not guarantee it will be done as guaranteeing the coverage might cost them money. Once the 3G network is shutdown though, it will be too late. If the communications minister doesn’t intervene, she’ll be giving the telco companies free rein to screw over Australians for short-term profits. 

It’s been clear since the inquiry’s public hearings in July that this shutdown must be postponed indefinitely. The telco companies have made it clear they don’t care about the consequences. Telstra and Optus have confirmed they’ll charge ahead with the shutdown. The telcos are more interested in their short-term profits than the safety and lives of Australians. 

Let me be clear: this shutdown will put the lives of Australians at risk, and Telstra and Optus are going to do it anyway. The Minister for Communications must intervene, yet so far all we have heard is crickets. We still have no statement from the minister that she will impose even one condition on Telstra and Optus—not one. We haven’t even seen a response from the minister to this interim report, despite the fact it was delivered nearly two weeks ago and the shutdown was due to happen just two weeks from now. 

I wish to thank the rural and regional affairs and transport committee for their fantastic work, especially the secretariat, in collating the numerous submissions and organising days of important public hearings, and Senator Canavan, the chair. The Senate successfully supported my motion yesterday ordering the government to respond to this inquiry, with Monday as the deadline. If the minister fails to respond or fails to provide a plan to intervene, we will be pushing this further. 

I take this opportunity to express appreciation for Mr James Parker’s comprehensive and insightful submission to the 3G inquiry and his powerful and clear witness testimony. In particular, I note that he revealed arguably the inquiry’s most significant discovery: the complete lack of compatibility of and standardisation across telco and phone manufacturers. It’s time to put the Australian people above the short-term profits of Telstra and Optus. The communications minister must intervene and set minimum service thresholds and other guarantees for the telcos to fulfil before we can even consider shutting down the network. I want to point out that France has delayed their shutdown until at least 2028 because they found out about the problems with the lack of standardisation and the lack of compatibility amongst phones. Britain is still on 2G and 3G and has now delayed their shutdown until late this decade. The minister must address the compatibility and standardisation issues that are costing 4G users needless expense and denying market competition. The people who are suffering are Australian consumers. I seek leave to continue my remarks later. 

Leave granted; debate adjourned. 

Telstra and Optus’ two-month delay on the 3G mobile network shutdown is a failure of the Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and defies recommendations from a Senate inquiry.

A two-month delay is nowhere near enough time to fix the million mobile and non-mobile devices the shutdown is still estimated to seriously affect. The telco companies have been let off scot-free.

There will be no consequences if Telstra and Optus flick the switch and leave hundreds of thousands of Australians in danger.

The 3G shutdown is only being done to boost the profits of Telstra and Optus at the expense of Australians living through a cost-of-living crisis.

READ my media release in full here:

For large swathes of Australia the countdown is on to lose almost all mobile phone coverage – and just about no-one in Canberra seems to care.

Most people ‘enjoy’ solid 4G and even 5G signal in the major cities and towns, but once you hit the edges – the old-faithful 3G signal is often it.

In the era of the smartphone, 3G gives you a reliable phone call but nothing much else.

It’s what we all used to rely on but in 2024 it’s considered technologically “obsolete”.

Read more here: The Scandal of the 3G Mobile Shutdown – ADH TV