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.

  • vividspecter@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    I think this whole thing needs to become a political issue — I think people in the bush need to start complaining and we need to get 3G back," he said.

    I understand where they are coming from, but 3G doesn’t inherently have better signal. The carriers may have fucked something up or they haven’t fully switched all of their old towers to 4G and 5G. And to be clear, both 4G and 5G can use the same low frequencies that 3G used, but are more efficient.

    That’s not to say the rollout hasn’t been a bit of a mess with bad communication and last minute changes (the whole VoLTE emergency calling shitshow, for example).

    • SalvoEnglish
      51·
      2 days ago

      The reason why enabling 3G would improve coverage is because low radio frequencies do travel further and are less affected by interference.

      This is why AM radio travels further than FM radio and why 4WDers used to carry UHF for local communication and AM or HF for long distance emergency communication.

      • vividspecter@lemm.eeEnglish
        10·
        2 days ago

        The reason why enabling 3G would improve coverage is because low radio frequencies do travel further and are less affected by interference.

        Both 4G and 5G support low frequencies. The protocols have nothing to do with the frequencies they support, although it can seem that way particularly with 5G, which only used high frequencies when it was initially rolled out.

        • The_DecryptorEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Both 4G and 5G support low frequencies.

          Yep, and they’re in use too. Telstra/Optus/Vodafone all run 4G at 700MHz (compared to 850/900MHz for 3G). It’s slightly different for 5G, Telstra use 850MHz while Optus/Vodafone use 700MHz.

          Australian Mobile Network Frequencies (Whirlpool)