The closure of the 3G network across Australia might seem scary, but there’s been a development as two telcos push the deadline again.
Australians who still haven’t made the jump from a 3G phone to something a little newer have been given a slight reprieve, as two of the country’s biggest telcos push the shutdown date one more time.
Much as Daft Punk sang, “one more time, we’re going to celebrate“, because phone owners with an older phone now have until near Halloween at the end of October before Optus and Telstra flick the switch and shut down the 3G network.
The joint announcement will see Telstra and Optus provide an extension of the 3G network shutdown until October 28, 2024, with the duo noting that the extra time will be used to deliver one last push of public awareness for the shut down, including a new public safety campaign to drive the message home.
Up until this week, the shutdown was set for the end of August, but with that date mere days away, Telstra and Optus are providing more time for affected customers.
It means if you rely on a 3G phone, you now have a few more months to make a shift to a new phone, as do people with phones that may not be set up to use the 4G network for triple-zero emergency calls. While the numbers of these phones may be comparatively low, there are still thousands of affected devices out in Australia, and once the 3G network has been shut down, emergency calls won’t be able to be made on affected devices.
“Optus has pulled out all the stops to guide a small number of our customers impacted by the 3G switch off through the process of updating their device — and I am pleased to say the majority of them are now on compatible devices,” said Michael Venter, Interim CEO at Optus.
“Adding to our extensive direct communications and marketing efforts to date, we are joining with Telstra to launch a final public awareness campaign to really drive home the safety message and get the final groups of customers to act,” he said.
Both Telstra and Optus provided a number of free phones for affected customers, and both currently offer a service for Australians to check whether their phone is supported, available if you text the number 3 to 3498. Regardless of whether you use a 3G, 4G, or even 5G phone, you’ll get a message back noting whether your phone is supported moving forward.
While the extension will be a sigh of relief for affected customers who may be struggling to make the time to switch, it also could be positive for Telstra and Optus, with each promising 4G parity with the 3G network by the time of the shut down.
Now that the date of the 3G shutdown has been extended, both telcos have a few more months to hit that promise of parity across the board.
Telstra, however, says it has managed to get close to that promise already, with a spokesperson noting that:
“We’ve nearly met our commitment to have equivalent coverage prior to closure with 99.9% of site upgrades completed. This involves upgrading all existing 3G sites with 4G technology, adding new 4G sites, and optimising others – all of which have been rigorously validated by our engineers to create equivalent 4G coverage in areas that 3G coverage exists today. We are on track as originally planned for this equivalence piece of work ensuring no unnecessary disruptions.”
Optus had already committed to leaving the network running in places where parity wasn’t achieved, but we suspect this extension could be the last breath for the 3G network all the same, with parity on the cards by Halloween.
