You’ll want to make sure you’ve upgraded to 4G within five years if you’re using Telstra, otherwise you won’t be using it for much longer.
There’s an end date for 3G services on one of Australia’s biggest networks, as Telstra marks the end date for 3G.
Depending on when you last bought your phone, this may not matter that much. Most phones we buy tend to be built for 4G, so relying on 3G isn’t that big of a deal, except when you go outside of major Australian cities.
Inside Australia’s major cities, you’ll find 4G and lots of it, at least until the speeds drop and the network suffers. Then 3G arrives, which can drop the speed from 3 to 30Mbps, and is similar to what you might get in rural Australia.
For Telstra, it’s betting that by 2024, it will have 4G catered to more parts of Australia, expanding the network to reach its 3G footprint right now, while working to improve 5G across the country.
The year 2024 is an important point for Telstra, which has announced that the switch-off date for 3G in Australia will be in June 2024, signalling the end of the 3G network and a date it needs to get its 4G network up to scratch to service Australians not just in cities, but in other parts of the country, as well.
The move to cut the 3G network comes after the 2G network was shut down back in December 2016, and sends a bit of a message to folks thinking of buying a used 3G phone today: while most will have upgraded to a 4G device, if you’re thinking of getting something classic for use on 3G networks, you might want to consider a 4G take on one of those, like the feature phones Nokia still releases. That should help stave off a need to upgrade by the time Telstra flips the switch.
And Telstra will end up flipping that 3G-ending switch, but you’ll have until June 2024 before it happens, leaving you with plenty of time to decide on a 4G phone, or something even newer.
