Australia Blocked Internationally Purchased 4G/5G Phones As Part of 3G Shutdown - Starting 28th Oct

If your provider is unable to verify VoLTE support for your device, it may be blocked from Australian networks from the 1st of November 2024.
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3G petition:

James' Medium article
"Australia’s 3G Shutdown - Telcos to Block Working 4G/5G Phones!"

Emergency Call Service Determination Legislation
(The law requiring telcos to block devices their can't verify)
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[HughJeffreys]

My sister in-laws 5G OnePlus 8 Pro was IMEI blocked Australia wide on the 28th of October as part of the 3G shutdown. She was receiving messages early on about 8 months ago when placing outgoing calls saying it will not work after the shutdown. Then she received confirmation that that was wrong and it will work, even received an email from her telco 2 days prior stating the device is not affected by the shutdown. Then on the 28th of October (day of shutdown) it was blocked and stopped receiving any network signal.
Its a 5G phone with Band 28 for emergency calls. It was identified by AMTA as a China OnePlus model "IN2020" stating it couldn't call 000 as it lacked band 28, when in fact its a US model "IN2025" which has band 28. Called the telco and they said the block can not be removed, they didn't block it and their is no appeal process. Told her to buy a new phone.

3G petition:

James' Medium article
"Australia’s 3G Shutdown - Telcos to Block Working 4G/5G Phones!"

Emergency Call Service Determination Legislation
(The law requiring telcos to block devices their can't verify)

[rat_step]

"You're a tourist, so you can't call emergency numbers. Oopsie! Sorry about your death, mate!"
- The Australian Government, probably

[marcbacus]

Millions of phones will go unusable. So much ewaste right there.

[Lucifer....]

No company actually cares about They care about MONEY....

[MickAngelhere]

Australia sees the mistakes other countries make and then go and make the same mistakes but even worse.
The government doesn’t care it’s about money

[johnneill]

My Dad's heart implant has a monitoring device in his room, to detect reading/alerts and upload them via 4g to the monitoring firm, they have no idea if their devices will work after 3g shutdown... they're in the dark. This will devastate regional Australia, where 4g coverage is largely non-existent.

[sticustom]

Seeing they know about this they should be sued if just one person dies because they can’t ring 000.
Someone’s making money out of this.

[AudioDriver]

This is giving me flashbacks of how the Australian government butchered the NBN roll out back in 2018. The fed is really braindead when it comes to anything technological in Australia. They always seem to make the worst possible anti-consumer choices at every turn. Almost smells like corruption.

[RavennaWyrmwood]

I’m so glad someone is talking about this. I spent hours googling to figure half of this stuff out, and still even the local Optus dealer wouldn’t believe it was true. Hopefully this video raises awareness of the insanity of Australian telcos.

[thedarkknight]

What about Cars and OTHER VEHICLES that RELY on 3G for their services (SOS, data and other)... Insto-Bricked?

[codyrap]

For ppl who bought phones due to the misleading messages, I suggest a class action lawsuit to at least get your money back

[Carnyzzle]

It's like Australia researched the AT&T whitelist and went, "alright, how do we do that but make it worse?"

[ozzybloke]

Your mobile phone wont be able to make emergency calls so were going to block it so you cant call anyone. Pure Intelligence from the Australian Government and telco's.

[Mrshoujo]

I dislike this continual forced obsoleting of usable technology every few years.

[qbmac]

My Xperia 10 II stopped receiving signal coverage in January 2024 because Vodafone shutdown their 3G network. Everything on the phone still worked, except making and receiving calls, which is kinda the point of a mobile phone. I was forced to buy a new phone specifically made for the Australian market.

[macp]

Tackling a non-problem by creating major problems, the Aussie politicians' way.

[wimpb]

The blocking of phones that can't call 000 is really baffling. So instead of being unable to call 000, I'll be unable to call anyone at all? Is that supposed to be an improvement?

[krazy]

It's not that the phone is unable to call on VoLTE, It's the carriers not provisioning VoLTE to that phone.

[OneIdeaTooMany]

Thousands of medical devices are about to go offline. Like CPAP machines.. they can no longer be updated nor can the data be reviewed by respiratory specialists. You'll now have to remove your SD card and take it to the manufacturer so they can upload the information for you.

[xchazz]

Don’t worry Australian has already banned freespeech and critical thinking, not having a phone wont matter much.