It has been more than 80 days since Telstra and Optus flicked the switch on the 3G mobile network. Hundreds of regional and remote Australians say they can no longer rely on the network and struggle to make calls.

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.

  • ZozanoEnglish
    4·
    9 days ago

    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.

      • ZozanoEnglish
        2·
        8 days ago

        Unfortunately I had to switch from Internode mobile (on the Vodafone network) because it doesn’t reach my house.