Peter LeGras’s phone was only a month old when it stopped being able to make calls, send texts or do much of anything at all.
It is one of several 4G-compatible phone models that are being blocked from all mobile networks following the recent shutdown of Australia’s 3G network, leaving untold numbers of Australians scrambling to replace recently bought devices.
Keenly aware of the looming shutdown, Mr LeGras had been careful to choose a fully 4G-enabled smartphone.
And the one he chose to buy from a shop in Japan – a 2023-model Xiaomi – was exactly that.
In fact, the same model is still available to buy at major Australian retailers. The manufacturer advertises it as being both 4G and 5G compatible.
And yet, as of this week, his phone has been unable to connect to the network at all.
Mr LeGras contacted his provider, Optus, and support staff told him that he would no longer be able to use this phone, or two other Xiaomi devices owned by family members, on its network.
But it’s not a technical problem causing Mr LeGras’s phone to stop working.
It’s that he bought it overseas, and that Optus is unable to tell if it might be incorrectly configured to work without 3G.
Why is the 3G shutdown affecting 4G-enabled devices?
The network operators are shutting down the 3G network to free up space on the radio spectrum for next-generation 5G networks.
But when 3G was switched off on 28 October, it exposed deficiencies in the 4G and 5G networks.
Some modern phones – even ones that work fine on 4G in most circumstances – are unable to call emergency services without reverting back to the (now gone) 3G network.
Mr LeGras’s phone has been caught up in a complex web of regulatory decisions that have turned a perfectly good phone into e-waste.
Here’s the long and short of it.
Just days ahead of the shutdown, Australia’s media regulator ACMA finalised a new ‘direction’ (basically a rule) that meant telecom companies had to refuse service to all phones that relied on 3G for making emergency calls.
The idea was to prevent people from mistakenly believing that phones were fully working, only to realise they were unable to make emergency calls when the crucial moment came.
It is up to the telcos to work out which phones are affected, notify the owners, block their phones, and help make other arrangements such as low- or no-cost replacement phones.
However, as Telstra and Optus noted during a Senate inquiry into the shutdown, telecom companies are unable to tell which individual devices suffer from this problem unless have they sold them.
An Optus spokesperson told the ABC it had a “robust” process for identifying problem phones.
“This is a safety issue – a matter of life and death – so if there is any doubt, we are compelled by law to block to protect customers,” the spokesperson said.
That means the companies are casting a wide net. The blocking is based on broad lists of supported phones which, in some cases, appear to hinge on where the device has been purchased.
And this has left some fully capable phones blocked.
Several major brands affected
Since telecom companies began switching off their 3G networks, hundreds of Australians have reported being in similar situations.
Phones made by Sony, ASUS, Xiaomi, Oppo, and OnePlus have been blocked if they were bought overseas or via international resellers.
But the same phones are still available at local retailers today, and will mostly still work if purchased there.
Optus said in a statement that some phones purchased overseas are configured differently even though they are the same model.
One phone on Telstra’s official supported devices list – the Sony Xperia X Performance, which was actually sold by Telstra in 2016 – fails to connect if that device was not purchased through the telco itself.
Keeping track of all the ins and outs of this is Brisbane-based networking expert James Parker.
His Sony Xperia XZ Premium, bought from Telstra but since fitted with an Optus SIM, has been blocked on the Optus network despite it being on the telco’s supported devices list.
“It’s blocked because it was originally sold by Telstra,” he says, “not by Optus or another Australian retailer.”
Mr Parker, who has been publicly scrutinising the plans for the 3G shutdown for more than a year, swung into action when people’s devices started being blocked.
Aside from publishing comprehensive information online for those with affected phones, he created an online survey to better understand the situation.
Of the 255 blocked devices reported to him so far, about 70 per cent were running a version of the Android operating system from 2021 or newer.
“These aren’t old phones,” he says.
He says the method that telcos are using to determine which phones to block is “delusional”.
The network providers are “judge, jury and executioner” on which phones will work in Australia, he says, while also being in the business of selling them.
Eleventh-hour changes to shutdown impact customers
While telecom companies have been warning customers for months that their phones may not work, the ACMA direction changed the situation dramatically shortly before the 3G shutdown.
After being warned his phone may have limited service in some areas, Mr LeGras received a text on Thursday saying definitively that his phone would be blocked from the network within 24 hours.
Jeannie Marie Paterson, a law professor at the University of Melbourne, questions why the regulator waited until so late before creating this requirement.
“Why have ACMA only discovered this now?” she asks.
“Phones are critical in our lives. They’re essential for us to do our jobs. They’re essential for us to run our families, our private lives.
“I just can’t see why this is happening in such a short period of time and why it wasn’t identified earlier, quite frankly.”
She says it’s unfair on consumers.
“It’s making expensive and essential technology redundant with almost no notice – at considerable cost and waste.”
Back in July, months ahead of a shutdown that has been in the works for over a year, the telcos warned communications minister Michelle Rowland about the massive number of phones relying on the 3G network to make emergency calls.
It was estimated at more than one million at the time, but has since been revised down to 276,000.
“The Australian government’s top priority in the 3G switch-off has been to protect public safety by ensuring that all mobile phones connected to mobile networks are able to call triple-0,” Ms Rowland told the ABC in a statement.
“Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom indicated to the government that their methodologies for identifying impacted devices had been independently verified as based on sound and established industry practices.
“If a customer considers that their handset has been blocked in error, they should raise that with their provider in the first instance.”
Confusing messaging from telcos
Mr LeGras thought that as long as his phone was able to operate without a 3G connection, it would continue to work when the network was shut down.
He had no idea there would be an arbitrary list of phones where ongoing support depended on where they were bought. Especially not one that was determined by the providers themselves, which sell thousands of phones to their customers.
“The communication has been an absolute mess,” he says.
One Australian reported having two conversations with Telstra; the different support agents gave conflicting accounts on how to check for compatibility.
Telstra said in a statement it was “only blocking devices that don’t meet emergency calling capabilities”.
An Optus spokesperson said the company “has been reaching out directly to impacted customers by SMS, email, and letters, helping them transition to compatible devices prior to the 3G switch off”.
They noted the importance of ensuring “safety and compatibility requirements” are met, including the capability to place emergency calls.
“The industry needs to be required to correct their messaging and stop telling customers with perfectly working phones they need to upgrade,” says Mr Parker.
“This practice has been occurring for months and there appears to be no accountability for the telcos providing false and misleading information to customers.
“The industry should be required to implement a real technical fix.”
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