Australia's 3G network shutdown begins

ABC NEWS (Australia)

In the next few months, Australia will have fully transitioned to the 4th and 5th generation networks. Vodafone yesterday was the first telco to switch off its 3g network permanently, while Telstra and Optus ending theirs by September next year.

Transcript

00:00 I think it won't be a disruption at all.

00:05 There's very, very few people who still have 3G phones, but many of these phones are simply

00:11 somewhere in a draw.

00:13 There are, of course, perhaps some older people that still have it, but the majority of people,

00:20 and I'm talking about 99% of people, won't actually notice any difference because the

00:26 phones that they currently have, they have to be 10 years old in order to actually get

00:33 the old 3G.

00:35 So it's highly unlikely that people will notice it in any major way.

00:40 All right, well, let's take a look at the things that may be affected here.

00:44 3G-reliant devices, it's estimated there are about 3 million of them, and we're talking

00:49 about older models of phones, FPOS machines, cards, tablets, security cameras.

00:54 Does that mean that once 3G stops, they will just stop working if you've got a 3G device?

01:01 Yeah, absolutely.

01:02 So you've got a lot of these, what's called the Internet of Technology, so that are devices,

01:07 not our mobile phone, but other devices that are linked to the network to monitor water

01:14 levels, to monitor certain medical equipment, cameras, as you mentioned.

01:21 These are equipments that could be sometimes very old, need not a lot of maintenance.

01:28 If you have, for example, water monitoring sensors, they can last for 10, 15 years.

01:34 So that sort of equipment could be affected.

01:37 But most of that equipment is under the control of companies, and they will have had, of course,

01:45 many, many, many warnings about the fact that these 3G networks are no longer available,

01:52 as from now and beyond.

01:54 So, you know, these companies will have made decisions.

01:58 Some might say, OK, it doesn't matter, you know, I'll leave what it is, I'm not using

02:01 it anymore.

02:02 That could be a case.

02:04 But organizations that are serious about it, I mean, I'm pretty sure there's no FPOS machine

02:10 in Australia that's still on 3G.

02:12 The banks will have upgraded these already many, many years ago.

02:17 So I don't think there will be a lot of disruption in that equipment.

02:24 Some people, you know, might have cameras, private people might have cameras.

02:30 If you have not upgraded them, yes, you will find out that if it's on 3G, then you might

02:36 find out that the camera is no longer working.

02:38 So it is worthwhile to keep an eye on it.

02:42 But, you know, the fact is that most of this equipment has been upgraded over the years.

02:48 Paul, you mentioned something there.

02:50 You mentioned medical alarms there.

02:52 And I read there's some 200,000 medical alarms in Australia will be included in this list

02:59 that is dependent on 3G as well.

03:04 It's time, I guess, for anyone who has a medical alarm to have a look to see whether it's been upgraded.

03:10 Yeah, but my understanding is that both from the telcos, you know, as well as from medical

03:17 organizations, these people have been contacted, yeah, not once, but many times.

03:23 But again, you know, sometimes you find out that some of that equipment is still somewhere

03:28 in a drawer.

03:29 Nobody is using it anymore.

03:33 So, you know, it is highly unlikely that people that are seriously depending on that sort

03:39 of equipment have not upgraded it.

03:41 But I totally agree with you.

03:43 You know, this is the time to get sent out these warnings.

03:47 And we will do that again next year when Telstra and Optus are facing the same situation.

03:53 So we will keep doing that.

03:55 And there will always be people that will be caught out.

03:58 So the more warning we can give them, the more information we can provide, the better

04:03 it is for everybody.

04:04 Paul, there's also concerns for people living out in rural and regional areas as well in

04:10 terms of coverage.

04:12 Is there, are they able to access 4G, 5G at the moment?

04:17 Yeah, that might be a bit of a disruption.

04:20 That could well be the case because what needs to be done is the 3G spectrum, because it's

04:27 a radio system, it uses spectrum, yeah?

04:30 And that goes over the air and therefore you need these big mobile towers.

04:35 So that 3G, the spectrum that's now becoming available from 3G is going to be used for

04:42 the 4G and particularly the 5G services that are now being rolled out.

04:48 So what that means is that some areas will rely on 3G.

04:53 And you're talking, you know, indeed about some regional areas where you still don't

04:58 have any other signal as 3G.

05:01 The theory is that the extra spectrum that becomes available boosts the existing 4G or

05:10 5G service that is there and therefore that the area covered by 3G will then be covered

05:18 by 4G.

05:19 That's the theory.

05:21 But I would not be surprised if that will cause some problems in outlaying areas who

05:28 are on the edge of mobile tower reaches.

05:31 There are, you know, I would not be surprised that people will see some problems there.

05:37 In that situation, it would definitely be worthwhile to make sure that you contact your

05:42 provider and make sure that the provider knows that because in many situations, they can

05:50 tweak the mobile tower in such a way that it covers all the areas that are there.

05:56 But that is something that people in outlaying areas who are now already on the edge of mobile

06:01 towers, they need to keep an eye on that, that their signal is not suddenly disappearing.

06:07 And if that happens, you know, they should absolutely contact the telco, mention about

06:12 and ask them if there is a possibility to tweak the radio signal on the tower in order

06:20 to give them the signal back.

06:22 back.

06:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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