Australia’s New Firewall IMEI BLOCKED 516,875 Active Phones Overnight + Tourists Phones Blocked

[@HughJeffreys]

For those wonder how I know that exact number of affected devices (516,875), the table shown in the video comes directly from a government website. You can find it here: www.legislation.gov.au/F2024L01353/asmade/text/explanatory-statement (Scroll down to "Option 3 - Industry self- or co-regulation")

[@ImMattFromAus]

516,875 in the table does not mean that 516,875 4G VoLTE devices were blocked from Australian networks. If you read further, the estimation is 258,000 of mobile devices in total. This includes 3G, 4G non-VoLTE, and 4G VoLTE E000 non-compliant devices. You should be embarrassed to post this.

[@JamesDwho]

@@ImMattFromAus the number of affected 4G VoLTE capable devices was in the order of 740,000 in March, then went up to a million in April. The title is still correct as that's the whole impact of the shutdown including 3G/4G/5G devices as of October. Also if you read the explanatory paper, the 258,000 number is actually a projected estimate based on that original 516K AMTA figure.

[@foobarf8766]

1.5% of the ~32 million phones in straya

[@evansmusic2009]

The figures don't include 'spare' devices that are currently not being used.. e.g. I had a Xiaomi Poco F3 which stopped working on both AldiMobile (Telstra) and True (Thai sim on roaming on Optus), however it seems that the True sim being blocked was blocking the AldiMobile sim also - after removing that it works ok!... I have a Xiaomi POCO X3 which does the same (had no sim), and a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 which works with Amaysim (Optus) but not with True (Optus) or AldiMobile (Telstra).... The iPhone 11 worked with all sims but only 1 sim slot, 4g and the interface is woeful!.. I have other spare phones also but didn't bother to test them! After no support from Telstra/Aldimobile, etc.. I ordered a replacement Xiaomi 14t from Kogan (was shipped from overseas) and that works with everything so far.... I will get very annoyed if it gets blocked in any way though... Both Kogan and the seller advised it will work on the Australian networks before I received it.. Thanks Aus Gov / Telcos for costing me over $1000, a week of stress and a further 2 days of hell getting everything working on the new phone...

[@harleyjones5200]

Are you aware of a class action being put together for owners of fully compliant handsets that were blocked? I would love to get onboard

[@the6ig6adwolf]

So you're telling me Australia has box jellyfish, taipan snake, saltwater crocodile, blue ringed octopus, stonefish, redback spider, brown snake, tiger snake, great white shark, Sydney funnel web spider and no emergency cellphone coverage? Yeah, maybe we'll plan a trip to New Zealand instead.

[@darrylweidenhofer]

We have to use semaphore now

[@BillAnt]

Surprisingly a country started with felons from the UK, has now turned into a large jail house or nanny state. smh

[@lazymass]

Lol

[@BillAnt]

The Nanny state in full swing. Not just this but many other issues. Yikes! Anyway, gotta "repair" the IMEI if possible. smh

[@svampebob007]

The 3G Shutdown is happening in New Zealand in about 6 months soooo... idk.

[@eweweweweew-e6o]

"Sir, why did you not dial emergency services?" "Because my phone was unsupported" 💀

[@Name-gi8dr]

This is absolutely brain dead

[@gufd968]

@@Name-gi8dr fr its the dumbest thing

[@K162-y1b]

I wonder how many people are going to have to die before the government rolls back this completely nuts policy?

[@JuzzyQld]

The same thing happened when CDMA was shut down. Go do your own research as to why this is happening, the guy in this video sensationalises everything and gets quite a few facts wrong

[@Cluuey]

@@JuzzyQld I have been looking into it and haven't found anything wrong, as you claim. You should tell us what is factually wrong, if you're correct I'd expect an update as he seems like a pretty honest person.

[@Chrisdlb]

Utterly ridiculous what the Australian govt has done. The 3G Shutdown is happening in New Zealand in about 6 months, I hope the NZ government doesn't follow Australia's lead and block IMEI numbers as well.

[@Hackerhunter15]

There is a right way to do it and a wrong way...Australia has done it the wrong way. The right way is the sms approach etc so wifi based app calling would still be able to be used therefore bypassing the limit of the device. And keeping some 3g bands for emergency use only.

[@tumo07]

@@Hackerhunter15yeah but idk what is the motive to shut down anyways when you need to keep it for emergency

[@MacGuffin1]

No, there is a good reason no one is talking about and it has to do with all the 3g vulnerabilities. This is actually a good thing, sux for all the ppl with hinky phones, but now we will have less spam/scam stuff and many other things that are abused by bad ppl

[@BeauGiles]

New Zealand has its own unique quirks for emergency calls. I believe NZ requires a SIM to be in the phone to make emergency calls. (whereas in Australia the phone needs to be able to call 000 with or without a SIM)

[@jackwilson5542]

In UK/EU 3G was shutdown (with few exceptions), but they kept on 2G-EDGE for emergency services, critical infrastructure and to support old devices. I think this was a smart move.

[@JoshLud]

That’s absolutely ridiculous, what a botched switch off. We weren’t ready to lose 3G yet anyway, it’s heavily relied on in rural areas.

[@stevetrueblue4thbackupchan770]

Put 3G back quick fix

[@Toliman.]

@@stevetrueblue4thbackupchan770no, it won’t work unfortunately. They have to open up a different radio channel for narrow band, low frequency to extend coverage past the 10-20km bubble. The regulator already lost the spectrum. It would require a bit more than just one act of parliament to push through a new / alteration of the radio spectrum allocation, it would also require compensation for the current owner. There are 750mhz/800mhz type bands, it’s just they’re in use with other agreement holders, sic.

[@stevetrueblue4thbackupchan770]

@@Toliman. Government minister forced this fiasco onto the phone companies after Telstra warned them of the impending disaster. So the only way forward is to force everyone to buy an expensive locked phone which we all try to avoid. But that wont fix the tourist phone problem. This is going to cost lives.They could invent Renta phone for tourists from airports. Another irritating expensive monopoly. And I suspect many people will simply opt to continue using current phone without emergency call facility. My blocked phones still work using Viber and Whataspp. This is as stupid as every state having different railway gauges. It seems this fiasco cost can only go UP.

[@MakeAsylumsGre4tAgain]

Lol planned, not botched. This is exactly what they want - push us towards AI and full surveillance, total control

[@Sarge92]

@@Toliman. i guarentee compensating the new owner is way cheaper than compensating the entire country for there 500+ dollar smart phones a small town would be pricy a city would be ludivrously expensive the entire country will bankrupt australia

[@SMOOREZ]

As a collector of Phones, it's absolutely ridiculous what the Government has done to the mobile network. I've personally tested a bunch of phones I bought back from Japan and most work on Vodafone but I don't know how long that'll last. I've signed the petition and I am not sure what to do now. We need to somehow get this further because it's ridiculous. But who do you go to? James has done everything and it's still happened. If you or James ever need to get me to test phones (ones you haven't tested) let me know and I'll let you know how it goes.

[@atandrachetan5251]

Do you know anything about Samsung Galaxy J5 pro 2017 model, it is definitely Blocked on Vodaphone but is allowed on Optus , wanting to know if it works on Telstra, and also if you know if it can make emergency calls, when sim is out it shows it can make 000 calls but i have not rung it, i am assuming it can,

[@SMOOREZ]

​@@atandrachetan5251I don't have a J5 Pro 2017 but if it's carrier branded, you can flash an XSA firmware and it will likely work on one of the networks but I can't be too sure. I did this with an A5 2017, it was Optus branded but I flashed it and I got the VoLTE option and it worked on all networks. It's all really specific if it will work or not.

[@JamesDwho]

Feel free to submit the device results to the Google Form/Sheet linked in the description.

[@Ron-y1b]

Your first line is a non sequitur

[@andrive]

Shoutout smoorez

[@griffin1366]

Whole family bought new phones as Telstra said they weren't compatible. All but one work. A 10 year old Vodafone 4G modem works. The $500 "Telstra Optimized" 2021 4G modem for Caravans (RV wifi) does not work. What a joke.

[@JustinEdge-n5j]

Yall got fucked on that in the US my s3 still works

[@tomtom1541]

Vodafone keeps sending me emails and messages saying I have to buy a new phone. But I've ignored them as the phone works fine.

[@JustinEdge-n5j]

@@tomtom1541 it's gonna affect you also I don't know why Australia doing so much stupid stuff about current and older phones but eBay will be flooded with phones within the next couple days I be buying them tho bc they will be discounted

[@afewspokesloose2699]

I'm assuming they should be able to whitelist an IMEI on the basis of it being a known modem only device or the SIM being data only.

[@loganmacgyver2625]

@@JustinEdge-n5j My nokia 5110 works on Vodafone Hungary

[@FailRaceFan]

This is absolutely crazy. Imagine this: About 26 million people live in australia and half a million phones are blocked. 2% of the entire population are unable to use basic functions every phone should be capable of...

[@vgamesx1]

I mean when you put it like that it doesn't sound quite as bad, the problem is lot of these blocked phones are still relatively modern and many supports the required features, meanwhile even the networks themselves don't know, telling customers what is supported then once someone buys a new device that won't work (according to other comments), worse though it won't affect just phones, there are still many random sensors/base stations/GPS devices, etc... That are setup remotely over older protocols like 2G or 3G that are suddenly bricked too, that could cost quite a bit of money for tax payers if for example that effects data collection for weather services.

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

​@@vgamesx1500,000 people being unable to contact emergency services is a crazy big deal.

[@SgtKOnyx]

​@@vgamesx1 "2% of the population and likely the vast majority of tourists just lost the ability to contact emergency services because of an arbitrary law" sounds really bad to me?

[@RRKS_TF]

@@SgtKOnyx 3G has vulnerabilities used by scammers for texting/calling people so shutting it down will force them to find vulnerabilities in newer, and more secure 4G and 5G specifications. We lose 2.7 billion annually to scams - even if 1000000 people were cut out, we would still be net-positive. Furthermore tourists are supposedly exempt according to another commenter in @szabotudor 's thread.

[@Sluggo57]

There are always dinosaurs clinging to old tech. This reminds me of when they shut down CDMA here in the country. It turned out to be a great decision for those of us on isolated properties. ☕️😎🦘

[@Carnyzzle]

I was joking about Australia studying AT&T's Whitelist and figuring out how they can make it worse but god damn they really did it

[@horatioyen256]

The fact that they introduced this new law just days before the 3g shutdown is outrageous

[@tomsmith6513]

oh I see . . . the IMEI/TAC blacklist wasn't even part of the plan

[@U.S.A.]

I'm not an expert, but here in Hungary we shut down the 2G and 3G networks a few years ago and all 4G and 5G phones work without any problem, our government even gave poor people 50 USD to buy a new phone.

[@PleaseGetReal]

Hungary do not have airheads like Albo and Michelle Rowland. SO far I am quite impressed with the Hungarian and Polish government.

[@Brian-vs9sd]

Just like all governments. They serve one purpose only. Move money from tax payers to large business. Unless Hungary are lucky enough to have a nice money tree, that $50usd had to come from somewhere.

[@U.S.A.]

@@Brian-vs9sd That's the purpose of paying taxes, that the government spends it on those people who need it, yeah it ends up in a big business but the same is true for services like healthcare, the money will end up in the pockets of big pharma, but those who paid the taxes will receive a life saving service. By the way, the Hungarian government is a really bad government, this is one of the few good things they have done, but they are doing a lot of bad things, I'm not on their side.

[@AnotherAustin-z7b]

​@@ibanezlaney the purpose of government is to serve its citizens, but the rich and powerful have perverted it into a service to consolidate power and make themselves kings de facto, which is almost as good as king de jure.

[@Rafskat]

@@vitcenek8611 *2g Will be phased out approximately in 2028 (here in cz)

[@CaptainFSU]

This is insane, does Australian gov actually think tourists will just buy a new phone if they're traveling to Australia?

[@tealkerberus748]

Your question is too long. "Does Australian gov actually think?" There. Fixed it for you.

[@jeffrodgers3969]

Hello diplomatic nightmares.

[@lbochtler]

​@@tealkerberus748the answer is no, the entire government shares a single braincell they barrowed from the USA but misplaced in a secure government facility. They have been chasing it ever since.

[@oliverodell3105]

I can imagine telling my boss he needs to buy me a phone for when I visit Australia because of this 😂😂😂

[@ItsBrendo]

"People will buy what we tell them to buy"

[@sakurojason]

Imagine buying a brand new phone in Australia, just for it to get blocked a month later. I’d try to sue the government.

[@HotChook]

I don’t think you know how that works. You can’t sue the government for passing a law you don’t like….

[@NickYea]

Luckily our Australian consumer rights mean we can return the device if it stops working due to a fault not of our own

[@BigJohnno66]

@@NickYea I laughed when I read that. Been trying that for the last 2 months and they say the fault is not the phone, it's the network, therefore no phone refund.

[@RRKS_TF]

@@BigJohnno66 It is a fault of the phone because nowhere in Australia would it work as a phone, furthermore I doubt they communicated this fact to you when you bought it so it could be called a misleading sale. They sold a device that they knew was going to be blocked in a month.

[@NickYea]

@@BigJohnno66 Mention you will report them to the ACCC (then do it), then seek individual compensation via the TIO - theyve been coming down hard on Telstra / Optus for how poorly they have handled this fiasco

[@szabotudor]

What in the forced obsolescence?? Are the higher ups in companies and government responsible for this stupid, or just plain evil?

[@albundy06]

The government is both. Stupid and plain evil.

[@samholdsworth420]

Now a bunch of people have to buy new phones...definitely wasn't intentional 😂

[@matthewtetley7048]

Someone's probably been bribed behind closed doors sadly

[@davidgoodnow269]

Why not both stupid, and evil? I find they frequently come as a package!

[@esecallum]

WEF

[@snip3d]

As someone who works with some of the largest mobile fleets deployed in country. The lack of clear instructions from Government, Carriers, Vendors - No one had clear answers. We had to migrate fleets of THOUSANDS from carrier to carrier on a whim that "That's our best chance". Even though these devices should have been fully compatible. Absolute Insanity. And yes, All devices were prepped for VoLTE and notified these companies ahead of time of 3G decomissioning. We planned for it - but no one saw IMEI blocking coming.

[@Pixelman0]

Wow, as an Australian, I am disappointed. Such a huge blunder from our government (although to be fair, most of our recent PMs have done nothing but fumble/blunder in the worst ways possible)

[@Chris-hx3om]

'Solar panel, on your roof, charging your vehicle, overnight' Do I need to say anything more?

[@MrDavo511]

@@Chris-hx3omever heard of a battery?

[@Chris-hx3om]

@@MrDavo511 he didn't mention a battery. He said solar panels charging at night. I have a friend, 76 years old, and next year he will be voting Liberal, for the first time in his life. All because of how utterly ridiculous Albanese is.

[@Burns_RED]

"You can't buy a used phone" Ding, ding, ding. You've found the true reason of this!

[@L_M_V]

Even the Galaxy S4 Mini supporte LTE. That being said i do agree we need support for 2G, 3G to stay around. iPhone 3GS agrees 😂

[@stuartd9741]

And everything YOU do on your smart phone, there are tons of autonomous functions constantly running in the background.. Some phone users should be aware of...

[@trignite]

@@L_M_V Wrong, yes it supports LTE, but you dont need 4G LTE internet, you need 4G VoLTE. The S4 Mini does NOT support VoLTE, unless you root the device, install a custom rom with VoLTE.

[@NickEter]

​​@@L_M_Vdid you miss the entire video man

[@NickEter]

​​​@@trigniteBrand new phones that were brought over from another region, and many 2010s phones also support VoLTE but won't work because every implementation of VoLTE can be different, meaning if you buy a phone NOT from a specific carrier in Australia to use it with that carrier, you'll probably be out of luck. You'd still be able to use mobile data, HOWEVER since the government isn't sure your phone will work in every situation, they will ban it from receiving any service including data and emergency calls, and tell you to buy an "approved" phone. This is not some 2010 3g smartphones we're talking about

[@AvgeekLMML]

My uncle lived in NSW where he was involved in a serious bike accident in February last year, Thankfully one of his friends saw him and called 000, he was visiting Australia from the Uk and the call worked thankfully, My uncle managed to live another year (in hospital though) before sadly passing away due to sepsis... What worries me is what would've happened if his friend's iPhone 11 couldn't call 000, he may have died much sooner and in a much nastier way. Thought you should know this, its a crazy law and is downright dangerous

[@warmoaran3]

sad story.. but its a real and valid point. now so many people cant even call emergency services.. because what? the government decided to block phones..

[@nikhilmulay]

Thank you Hugh for bringing attention to this. I realised how much of a sham this shutdown is. I have a phone that can do 000 over 4g and using VOLTE, but my phone has been blocked! And it supports band 28. We need more people like you.

[@magesnz]

It’s a sham as they don’t want people to bring their overseas phone into Aussie and people have to buy shiny new phones …. Australia is dumb for doing that …. It’s like the nbn in Aussie , signed a kiwi living across the ditch

[@Lordniksidor]

Me too, my 2 month old phone is bricked WTF, had to go to JB hi-fi, to buy the same brand phone for more money that's 830% slower... wow

[@ElectronicInspiration]

​@@Lordniksidoryou talking about Snapdragon vs Exynos Samsung phone?

[@Lordniksidor]

@@ElectronicInspiration Naa a Xiaomi poco x6 pro from AliExpress downgraded to a Xiaomi Redmi 12 from JB both are MediaTek chips

[@pieflies]

@@magesnzthe Australian government is not that calculating. It’s more likely just incompetence. The Australian government is very incompetent.

[@alexanderSydneyOz]

Note that section 71 of the legislation specifically says that the prohibitions do not apply if a carriage service provider is aware that the mobile phone is being used by an end user who is a foreign traveller in Australia and who intends to remain in Australia period of no longer than 90 days. In that case they can provide service as long as a text message is sent saying that emergency service are not supported. The morons in government didn’t really give us any thought anyway but the options is there to unblock a phone phone IMEI arbitrarily at will, by the Telco or CSP.

[@Mr.Kotovski]

In my country, i live in Russia, 3G isn't shutdowned. 2G/3G/4G network is working as normal. Also, we got VoLTE to make traditional voice calls, but our emergency number 112 is making on 2G/3G network only. In Russia we have no 5G network at all.

[@arcturuslight_]

I was checking coverages by different operators, and found that almost non of them cover 2G anymore, and those that do, the connection speed is below standard for 2G. So, no regular calls through it for most people, but emergency calls should work in the middle of most nowhere, which is good. 4G network coverage is somewhat spotty even in the most covered regions, so shutdown of 3G would leave most people in the dark, it's basically the main network.

[@Mr.Kotovski]

@ in Russia coverage of 2G is bigger than 3G/4G

[@machintrucGaming]

No 5G even in Moscow or St Petersburg ? Why is that ?

[@6AxisSage]

In soviet russia, phone coverage covers you

[@machintrucGaming]

I am disapointed by comment got deleted

[@RihelB]

Ridiculous to block IMEIs if not compatible. They could have just notified via text.

[@YuvrajHanspal]

That would make too much sense...

[@timtamothy]

They did sent text notifications many months ago

[@Pastafari4]

Honestly, why block IMEI? Just notify them of the network shitting down and then shut it down

[@kbhasi]

When I was on holiday in Australia some months back, they did inform me via text and email, but the message was vague, they mentioned to contact support but they tried tricking me into allowing my prepaid service to be converted to a postpaid service that would be useless for me once I leave the country, by pretending it's a prepaid plan. Hugh Jeffreys made it clear before Optus did, and somehow, even though the SIM card is supposed to be expired by now, it's still in the latter's systems and they're still spamming me, assuming I was an Australian citizen when I was just a tourist! They seem to intentionally make it hard to cancel service.

[@poeterritory]

How is it the more we advance, the more features and usefulness we seem to lose?

[@alandoesexist]

me as an Indonesian : welcome to the club Australian!!

[@freedomgoddess]

@@alandoesexist tell 'im! for the australian, especially, should know what a horrible country he lives in!

[@Renderlesscharacter2454]

I am chilean and here we have terrible politicians, but some aussie people say they are the worst, OMG

[@ThylineTheGay]

capitalism!

[@masterkamen371]

The world is steadily progressing towards being ruled by corporations. Just look at the latest US elections and what the mister in charge promised. Everyone's going for immediate, short term gains, without once considering the future.

[@j2simpso]

I wonder if the 3G shutdown is illegal and violates Australian law? The reason I ask is that usually countries are bound by international treaties. And Australia is a member of the international telecommunications union (ITU). I believe GSM standards incorporate part of the mandate of the ITU so it would make me wonder if there are regulations on minimum GSM support

[@s6edge7]

As if they'd care

[@dylanlindsay1993]

@@s6edge7 theyll care once they are fined a shit ton of money unless they undo all the imei block crap!

[@j2simpso]

@ well they would if you start taking them to court and enforcing the rules. I wonder why there isn’t a class action lawsuit against the telcos and government for the hundreds of thousands impacted by this bone headed decision?

The thing with the ITU is, that everyone basically does their own thing regardless. In the US, all carriers except T-Mobile also have shut down 2G and 3G and Switzerland will follow with this. As far as I know, TMO US will also shut down 2G in the next couple weeks.

[@ronronchau]

ACMA: I amend the law to make sure every devices without their telco's crappy VoLTE implementations will bricks, so it is the telco's problem for not allowing those devices using cellular network, not my fault, go sue me lol

[@StV2000000]

When the 3g shutdown was announced i bought a new phone, checking that it had access to all the bands to make sure that i would have access to the network after the shutdown I got texts about it not being compatible which didnt make any sense to me so i called the 3g shutdown number and went into my telco store to check and everyone said that it would be ok I even called them after the shutdown on a VoLTE call qnd specifically asked them if my phone would be blocked which they said it wouldnt be. It got blocked 2 days after I hope that they get sued, this has been ridiculous and upsetting

[@drakegarcia3106]

Ladies and gentlemen, from the same country who introduced Raygun to the world. 👏👏👏

[@youngblood4826]

Like the lead developer of GrapheneOS stated, it's a mess. Flaky support for volte is actually caused by the telco companies itself because they poorly implement it or use a proprietary implementation that doesn't work on all devices.

[@Roxor128]

Yeah, and the main offender for that in Australia? Telstra. If you've bought something generic, you've got better odds of it working with Optus or Vodafone.

[@tin2001]

​@@Roxor128 Which is partly due to the "Mexican" bloke they had as CEO during the time mobile internet started to become popular... He changed Telstra to be more like an American telco, and it seems they're still stuck that way.

[@darkerm76]

Australian people should do something about this. This is insane

[@dombenjak]

our government is terrible. they couldnt give two shits

[@TheSnowLeopard]

There is nothing we can do except complain and vote for minor parties in the senate.

[@xpower7125]

they should overthrow their whole government tbh

[@mwont]

Do what exactly?

[@_BangDroid_]

Don't try to protest, you'll be arrested

[@Jeal0usJelly]

AU gov: 🤡 AU residents: 💀 AU wildlife: 🤤🤩😋

[@lrc3847]

Once the wildlife gets the waste: 💀

[@Ethan2xm85]

Time to turn into a giant poisonous spider then...

[@creatrixZBD]

Unfortunately most of us ain’t that skinny 💀 in this country. More like 🟤⚪️🟡 and various other blob shapes 😅

[@MrSamPhoenix]

Pretty much lol

[@_WalkTheEarth_]

Real?????

[@thedarkknight1971]

Oh, surprise surprise surprise.... Even when tech experts, emergency services, and MANY other fields of expertise say "NO! DON'T! Because of this or that"... A Govt STILL thinks 'They know best' and do it anyway!!! 🤨😒😒😒😡

[@OverkillCB]

We had 10 4G devices disabled. The problem was the whole time we have been told 3G was switching off so why would we worry? We weren't told "plus a few hundred thousand 4G devices we can't confirm by an additional selective IMEI block" This government is completely incompetent and I'm up for $15,000 in replacement costs for new Android barcode scanners.

[@PleaseGetReal]

I fully agree with you. That's why I hope the useless and clueless Minister of Communication, Michelle Rowland, a lawyer by training, gets fired. There are too many lawyers in politics. Where are all the engineers and scientists ?

[@JamesDwho]

The telcos actually warned the ACMA that barcode scanning (and other non-calling devices) would also be impacted if they were forced to blocked devices. The ACMA disregarded that concern. You can read more in the ACMA's Explanatory Note. I would recommend writing to your Local MP, State Senators and the Minister, perhaps also to the ACCC & ACMA.

[@tomsmith6513]

lol yeah I thought it was only 3G . . . but wait . . . some 4G devices aren't going to work either? I mean yeah, come on, they didn't warn us about that. Many of these phones were not "internationally purchased." They were retail products purchased locally.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

No. Stopping 3g service is fine. Blocking phones from 4g and 5g "they cant call 000" - is NOT FINE.

[@brianwelch1579]

rather, if the phone CAN obtain a signal/connection, it MUST be able to call emergency services. is how it really MUST be, anything else is putting money before lives.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@brianwelch1579 no, it doesnt. If the phone CAN obtain a signal/connection, it MUST be NOT blocked.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@brianwelch1579 having tourists with no cell service is WAY WORSE than letting them have a degraded service. BTW buying local eSIM over cellular data or updating network profiles over cellular data - that works (unless some idiots decide to ban device 15 minutes before it becomes fully compliany).

[@steveyoung101]

The funny thing is my overseas phone can call "000" but I can't receive calls. This is a shit show from AU.

[@stoneyewilso8325]

No . That is called coercion. 3G should be kept for people who care less for “5g”

[@waynej747]

Once again, some government entity that knows nothing about technology is making decisions about technology and Australians (and visitors to Australia) are paying the price. Reminds me about the NBN and way the LNP screwed that one up.

[@RRKS_TF]

I do not think it is as bad as you think - there are technical reasons to remove 3G with the only reason to keep 3G being backwards compatibility. 3G has vulnerabilities that are used by scammers to flood people with texts and calls which costs approx. $2.7 billion annually. Furthermore some applications where 3G is used would be better served by more specialised technologies - e.g; 4/5G for speed or LoRa for long-distance.

[@PleaseGetReal]

@@RRKS_TF We are talking about 3G. We are talking about the banning of phones based on TAC.

[@Lordniksidor]

@@RRKS_TF happy for them to turn off 3g, it's just the IMEI blocking of my 2 month old 5g phone effectively bricking it that irritates me. Then the Telco says "oh but we only do it because you won't be able to call 000" when that's not true, reality is they don't know and can't be bothered checking if you will be able to call 000 and it wouldn't hurt their profits if you had to buy a new phone through them so you're blocked.

[@ariadhikarayendra5111]

Similar to Indonesia. The country implements IMEI blocking to stop the illegal phones from entering. Only phones that are locally produced are allowed, except foreigners phones which have an exception. To get their blocked devices allowed, people need to pay quite a high amount which in the end is not worth it for most people. Indonesians who work overseas also need to pay the fees if their phones were bought outside of the country, even for just a short visit.

[@tahaak]

Same thing in Turkey. The unblock fee is so high, that it’s effectively not economically viable. It’s about the cost of a mid-range smartphone, so if you buy the newest iPhone from another country, it ends up costing more than purchasing it locally (which costs about 50% more than in the rest of the world). A locally purchased iPhone 16 Pro Max is about $3000 there. Insane!

[@forcews]

@@tahaak IMEI editing and randomization is needed, no point telling that it is illegal as same bureaucrats are responsible in espionage and blocking practices.

[@eternalinsignia]

This is false. As a tourist, you can use your phone normally as long as you don't use an Indonesian SIM card (basically roaming with your not Indonesian SIM card). Or you can use the tourist sim card offered by some operator for short time (3 months). The block Indonesia do is not like Australian one (from this youtube).

[@StephenDeTomasi]

The big difference here is that you can pay tarrifs to unblock your phone in Indonesia, whilst in Australia you are completely screwed and you cannot unblock it, because our government is stupid and not just hungry for tax dollars.

[@WuJiZhang-wc9mc]

Indonesia has turn to nationalism/protectionism 10 years from now, Indonesia will be the fore front of Fas....ism.

[@tagKnife]

Theres a reason why many many phones still require 2/3g because 4/5g has bad range and doesnt have coverage everywhere. For example, In the UK, 98% of the UK has 2/3g coverage. But only 45% of it has 4/5g coverage. So it makes sense to default to 2/3g for emergency calls because you absolutly need that call to go through and not drop.

[@ryanboscoe9670]

Absolutely especially because Australia has many people living right across the interior of the country. For example 5g only has 84% coverage through Vodafone and its very slow and expensive to expand for 400 people 5000km from the nearest service

[@FakeJeep]

This would instantly be a lawsuit in the US. Emergency services are required by law.

[@rudiger86]

So are they here if your phone can connect to a tower, that is why they blocked the phones to avoid being held accountable

[@walsakaluk1584]

Emergency service access is required by law in Oz too.

[@rudiger86]

@ only to phones that can connect to a tower, hence the law blocking them access to connect

[@annanz0118]

They are in Australia as well and this is the reason the phones are being shut down as they can no longer access emergency calls reliably, that way people already know there phone isn't working before they actually try to call 000.

[@FakeJeep]

@@annanz0118 and you didn't watch the video.

[@carletonrutherford1799]

I HATE that phone manufacturers and now Australia have said, upgrade your phones or gtfo scrub. Screw people over, and create e-waste. Great job.

[@paulwarner5395]

They learned from Microsoft and Windows 10

[@android0045]

No, the phones can be sold to another country.

[@Sniffy1975]

It's not even just old phones to force people to upgrade, even brand new phones are randomly being blocked.. meanwhile my 6 year old iPhone X still keeps chugging along.

[@stevebuckley7788]

Problem is you could buy a new 5G phone and it still get blocked. Not because it is incompatible with dialing 000 using VoLTE but simply because it's manufacurer ID is not included in the white list. This is what happened to my phone. It's now fully blocked and can ONLY dial TRIPLE ZERO (000) Emergency Services. Ironic somewhat.

[@mwont]

If you told this to someone from a normal country, they would not believe what Au government is doing.

[@genericpd]

same shi is happening in Turkiye for years. This is just horrible..

[@RAILGUNSHOOT]

Hahah yeah when I saw this video that's what I got reminded of too, turkiye also blocks phones if you don't pay up their 700€/$ registration fee (a k.a tax)​@@genericpd

[@Skobeloff...]

Are there any normal countries left?

[@windows8.1proforthewin]

@@Skobeloff... the entirety of central Europe and Asia?

[@tumo07]

@@Skobeloff...yeah asia Vietnam still have 2g (just created a plan to shut down 2g but recieving backlash)

[@JBSbass]

if this does not tell you who runs the country then nothing does. I live in regional NSW surrounded by farms and I know of more than a half dozen farmers who have long standing in place equipment that has gone completely dark, one now has to drive k's through rugged terrain to get to a managed water release that had been controlled by a 3G SIM and a web interface to water stock. A replacement module cost over $10k just for the in place replacement modem, expedited its install but malfunctions due poor coverage and penetration of the signal into these rugged areas. I have always been a big supporter of Gov pushing back into essential services and taking back the businesses and the infrastructure of essential industries that are critical to many of the industries that keep the economy ticking.

[@JamesDwho]

You should encourage them to write to the Senate Inquiry Committee and the Committee Senators. (If they haven't already)

[@JBSbass]

@@JamesDwho they have been doing that for well over a year. Standard gibberish impersonal responses. As the Op said, this has bipartisan support and the Gov are not listening.

[@larion2336]

It was the govt which created this problem, not the telco's per say. It's enforced by the telco's because the govt made it a law that they had to. That's why they're blocking phones that even still work with 4g/5g and VoLTE, just because they've been put on some crap blacklist.

[@camjkerman]

My dad used to travel to Sydney on business quite frequently when he worked in telecoms (we're British), he was shocked when I told him what was going on. I have just written to my local MP about the issue, urging them to put pressure on our government to ensure that our legacy network remains online for as long as possible. If Australia must become a cautionary tale, we must learn from it.

[@GarfieldRex]

The lack of consumer protection in Australian constitution and law is absurd.

[@longwallmining]

Consumer protection because we have no bill of rights

[@WhatIsSanity]

Oh the protections are there in writing, they just aren't enforced.

[@liveroy]

And who is exactly this genius that proposed this?You guys can go out there and hold them accountable....

[@alandoesexist]

me as an Indonesian : welcome to the club Australian!!

[@NPCD-pc5ml]

No idea, handsome, supermodel poster. As you are aware, they are for themselves before the people.

[@CommanderQ]

That would be Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland. She was the one that wrote the direction to the ACMA to update the legislation to make the carriers required to block phones - Sure it had an exception for tourists, but the carriers can't tell the difference between 'freshly landed tourist with new local sim' and 'grey import for local aussie'.

[@Name-gi8dr]

​@@CommanderQ IMEI blocking is terrible idea to begin with. Just make a law that you can't sell a phone that can't dial emergencies. Making it too complicated for no fucking reason.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@Name-gi8dr Would have been so much more straightforward, IMEI blocking was OBVIOUSLY going to hit travellers. In which corner of Australia do you find people who are THAT stupid?

[@snajperSLO]

This is how you get a new spot in the new Guinness book of world records for creating the biggest e-waste in the shortest time possible. Good job folks!

[@Rexhunterj]

Not a single thing this government has ever done has been good for our environment, no matter what they say. Misinformation and Disinformation peddlers is wat they are.

[@zdanee]

1: Buy the most expensive phone from the telco 2: Sue both the telco and the government for mandating you this purchase unnecessarily 3: Do it as a class action. Argue that a working phone is a basic necessity in this year and age. 4: Ask for tax refunds for compensation or financial support for people on welfare or young people still in school without income 5: Now it costs a lot of money for the government and it's an ongoing cost. The only people to benefit is the telco. Also, this will take away voters. They can spend a lot of money on this forever... or they can regulate telcos which would be infinitely cheaper and would add voters. 6: Accept that this was a corrupt deal made with telcos for financial gain, basically an extortion and punish the corrupt parties.

[@crazyidiot5309]

Kind of makes me glad I chose software engineering and am a RAN Engineer. I could just replace the IMEI with a decommissioned device that is known to work and adjust the CSC. I don't abide by rules like this. There is no reason to be doing this and there's not a form of information they could present me with that would bring back the life of someone that didn't know about this and tried 000 and never works and they die where they sit. That death should be directly attributed to the carrier and the government. I'd go so far as to bringing this before international law. This is a major safety concern. MAJOR.

[@halifaxguy]

So…. Some genius decided that making a phone completely inoperable is safer than a phone that could potentially under very specific circumstances not be able to make a 000 call… I feel if he government decides they don’t want me to use a phone that I have chosen to use, paid for and have active service on, they should be required to exchange my phone for an equivalent current phone that fits whatever obscure rule they decided on today…

[@itsmilan4069]

class action lawsuit material 👀

[@Rodger_Phillips]

yes, by users and Phone Companies since many phones from many major manufacturers are also effected which means sales are going to be impacted,

[@itsmilan4069]

@@Rodger_Phillips don't forget corporates who's communication network went down to

[@drueckglueck9918]

Maybe in crazy USA

[@GingerNingerGames]

Yeah, who pays for the phones people bought thinking they'd work? Instant refund under ACCC anyway because it's not fit for purpose

[@bluetheta]

@@drueckglueck9918 Class actions are banned by arbitration clauses. Australia probably has similar and the government has "qualified immunity" so it not going to happen. Voting is probably the only solution - remember that even unopposed incumbent can be harmed by not marking the ballot unless Australia has a "one vote and you're in" rule at which point sitting out the election is only recourse even if it is "mandatory" as the vote "doesn't count" due to automatic win rule. My state here in the U.S. had to change its laws to prevent this automatic win for unopposed people, so not marking ballot is a valid "choice".

[@mxtblt]

In France, on all Telcos, 2G and 3G are still fully usable. It's absolutely outrageous that Australia is shutting down those useful networks.

[@StephenDeTomasi]

I actually don't have a big problem with it - those networks eat up valuable spectrum. The blocking is what really gets to me.

[@Sweat_ii]

France is shutting down 2G next year and 3G within the next three years.

[@Sweat_ii]

On top of that, most countries in Europe are projected to have 3G shut off by sometime in 2025. So, it isn’t necessarily outrageous.

[@Aomicplane]

@@StephenDeTomasi I wouldn't have such a huge problem with it if VoLTE wasn't the huge dumpsterfire that it is. VoLTE doesn't work on my 5G enabled phone, it falls back to 3G/2G when calling..

[@LED-cx6wj]

Ok that's cool Here in Germany, 3G was shut down in the last 2 years unfortunately, but 2G is still available for exactly this reason, so that normal telephony and emergency calls on older phones still work.

[@PleaseGetReal]

What do you expect when the Minister of Communication is a lawyer by training ? She should have been fired after she received donation from Sportsbet ! Please fire her now before she does any more damage to communication and to Australia !

[@Catge]

In the USA you can dial emergency services from any device with no sim anywhere in the states.

[@annanz0118]

It was the same in Australia, this is why the phones are being blocked as without 2G or 3G these phones no longer can, even if they support 5G or 4G

[@atlasz911]

2G has excellent coverage. There is still some advantage in keeping it on in Europe. Why would Australia lower the coverage area of mobile phones? 25 years ago I bought a phone directly from the operator. Only one single time in my life. I never got a provider sponzored phone since and not planning to. I believe that at least half of the phones here are not bought from a service provider here. This kind of decision would probably cause mass protests.

[@Epic3032]

Microsoft and its hardware requirements for 24H2 also creating e-waste too so much for "Carbon neutral" companies huh?

[@jackwilson5542]

I am keeping my Windows 10 PC for the foreseeable future. No updates? I don't care, I have 3rd party security solutions. It runs much better than my relatively new Windows 11 Laptop, although they are similar spec for spec. Windows 11 is a spyware bloated mess.

[@tomtom1541]

​@@jackwilson5542would be a better idea just to use Linux instead. Windows is just too slow, and it gets slower with every update.

[@bapt_andthebasses]

@@tomtom1541 Debloated Windows isn't slow. I compared a debloated Windows 10 and Linux Mint, Windows does boot faster, and web browsing is about the same. On Intel Celeron + 4 GB DDR3 RAM + eMMC 32GB drive.

[@shaunclarke94]

To be fair, they were always the requirements. I don't agree with it, but it was never supported to begin with.

[@tin2001]

​@@bapt_andthebasses Did you debloat Mint too, or did you do an unfair comparison?

[@StarsRebublicBall]

Dude, inflation in certain areas of Australia is crazy, and now they want people to buy new, very expensive phones? All because of the government? I hated the government before, and now it's just worse.

[@wiseuphoria]

do something about it or it will get worse than this in the future...

[@thecon_quererarbitraryname6286]

You have every right to. I bet they got a HUGE bribe from phone brands...

[@wiredupkirsty0]

I think the Australia government should at least give everyone free phones at this point if they are blocking IMEI numbers

[@RRKS_TF]

@@thecon_quererarbitraryname6286 I do not think it is a bribe, i think it is the government trying to minimise the 2.7 billion lost annually to scams.

[@StarsRebublicBall]

@@wiredupkirsty0 it would mess with their constant money flow by taxing the poor. Even though they have so much money from double taxing, they don't want to give anyone phones

[@alexandreb.1101]

It's honestly stupid. Portugal has shutdown 3G last year. 2G REMAINS, and emergency services are one of the rrasons why it does.

[@tomsmith6513]

3G is also used for emergency, so why 3G and not also 2G?

[@SianaGearz]

@@tomsmith6513 For the same number of base stations, 2g has fundamentally a lot more penetration. Also what are you going to do with those frequencies? 3g ones could be reassigned to some higher-qam use, 2g are just kinda there with no major competition.

[@steeviebops]

@@tomsmith6513 Lowest common denominator. 2G works with pretty much anything. And if you need to keep 2G on for legacy devices, you might as well just shut 3G. Here in Ireland, Vodafone have closed 3G but their 2G remains as it is used by systems such as bus stops. I'm pretty sure that our electricity meters also use it, although I don't know what network.

[@supernenechi]

Sometimes I wonder if the US, UK and Australia are competing in some sort of competition of who can make the worst decisions.

[@Swenser]

Australia has a law via ABF that won't allow prescription medicines from overseas unless they are signed off on by an Australian doctor. I have complained to the prime ministers office but they don't respond and seem to care. Things have gone haywire. Crazy since Australia has protected heroin injection sites and safety drug testing for party goers. Australian government have gone stupid.

[@TheSilmarillian]

A long time ago I would think.

[@navyblue9355]

safe injection sites save lives. if they didn't exist those people would still shoot up just with dangerous equipment and potentially die without anyone noticing. Safe injection sites aren't the complete solution to addiction (that requires medical, housing and psychological support systems) but it demonstrably decreases human suffering. That has nothing to do with needing prescriptions signed off by an in-country doctor. It's not a one or the other situation.

[@MainInternetUser]

What's even the point of blocking IMEI just shutting down the 3g isn't enough ?

[@rkan2]

nonstandard voLTE...

[@LiEnby]

@@rkan2 then it’s just “not work” unless they litterally just want people to die,

[@0ka354]

​@@rkan2and?

[@aperitifs]

​@@rkan2 Blocking the device saves the government getting sewed by someone who's phone worked fine till they needed to call Emergency..

[@lrc3847]

@@rkan2 What nonstandard if Telstra is the one which is NOT standard... if other countries block all Telstra phones even for Roaming, I imagine how Australia will react.

[@PleaseGetReal]

FIRE MICHELLE ROWLAND NOW ! She is useless as the Minister of Communication.

[@musicalneptunian]

First, there was Conroy. Then, there was Rowland.

[@Skobeloff...]

This goes well beyond just one person.

[@two_tier_gary_rumain]

It's not just her. All the numpies at Helstra need to be sacked. Been dealing with these boy geniuses since the 80s. To say they are sans clue is being far too generous.

[@AwesomeSauce81]

Michelle Rowland probably doesn't even know the difference between 3G and 4G.

[@Skobeloff...]

@@two_tier_gary_rumain Dealing with telstras 'customer support' in the dial up days, probably took 10 years off of my life, 10 good years too, not these current silly ones.

[@Zadow]

All I’ll say is 4g is well fast enough, we didn’t even need 5g but hell it’s here Just turn 3g back on and keep it up, it’s used by many things still

[@blackwidowrsa]

They should rather keep 2G. It's a cheap and reliable fallback for calls. 4G(and +) has been better for me than 3G and 5G.

[@talibong9518]

2g can go, it's insecure and interferes with with 4g and 5g, and it's pretty useless for the most part these days. 3g is still useful tho, I often have to fall back to 3g because 4g and 5g are unreliable.

[@blackwidowrsa]

@@talibong9518 you obviously don't know how frequencies work with that statement, 2g requires a lot less width and therefore can interfere less. And probably never been anywhere remote where 2g is the only robust enough tech to work.

[@TheSmilePerson]

Problem is that these companies want to cut costs and remove 3g to save money because "barely" any device uses it. But here in this case the govt is blocking it

[@JoRoBoYo]

apparently they reused 3g band for 5g.. apparently

[@DanielTheBigD]

As a resident of the USA, this move is just about ten times as stupid as Dodge cutting off the Challenger or GM axing Saturn. What a joke, Australia!

[@johnanderson350]

Completely understand the problem! Lost the use of a Xiaomi phone. Supposedly supports all the required features and can confirm it can call 000 but still blocked. Simply because of an "unknown" TAC code.

[@N4CR]

just stop using cellphones and go wifi only. dont reward them

[@xoOPhoenixOox]

Just sue the tellcos. You have a contract with them. The contract states, that they are to provide service to you. Your phone can be prooven to have all features required to accept service (including emergency calls over 4g) . Therefore they have no reason to block your phone and refuse service to you. Doing so without a good reason is a clear and obvious breach of contract. Sue them for it.

[@johnpaulalao6553]

No sue the government, this is ridiculous besides this a more direct way to fix the problem

[@mangiblotarinawabag4964]

Ha ha ha. Good luck. The ALP couldnt give a shit, and neither could the telcos.

[@ingulari3977]

Definitely sue telcos. Customers have contracts with telcos. Telcos then might be forced to sue the government. And they will have larger leverage and better lawyers. Additionally sue the government. So in the end both customers and telcos will be suing the government.

[@tomtom1541]

I've actually had a little bit of experience with this, I got a $700 refund when NBN couldn't fix my service. Basically you can force them to refund the cost of the phone or modem, plus refund the monthly charges for whatever months you couldn't use the service. But they won't pay any more than that, and the phone company will no longer serve you after getting the refund. Everyone should make complaints with the TIO ombudsman.

[@shaunclarke94]

Sue them for what? Following government regulation? 🤦‍♂

[@steve_1507]

This is crazy. They should have at least kept 2G Voice enabled. In Germany, 2G is often the only kind of connection you'll have.

[@seanet1310]

2,G voice was shut down in 2016 except for a small island

[@oldblueshirtguy]

@@seanet1310 That's insane. 4G was designed with a feature called CSFB to allow fallback to 2G for emergency and other calls as the expectation in every normal country was that 4G would quickly replace 3G, but 2G would still be needed for some time. Well it's 2024 and most EU countries have or are shitting down 3G but 2G still exists for the moment for that reason. It sounds like Australia have got things upside down!

[@aiko4139]

2G will also get disabled in Germany. T-Mobile already said they will shut it down 2028.

[@RiderAEonRanger]

Speaking as an Aussie living rural for the past 20 years; 2G was hit-or-miss depending on local terrain and how close the nearest tower was (I had a 2G phone that got signal from the tower on a hill 40km away over flat farmland when at the front door of the farmhouse was living at, go to the back door and the signal was dead), whilst 4G here has been sidegraded to use the bandwidth for Analogue FTA TV (that was shut down like 15 years ago) to extend the range of the 4G signal (Telstra calls this version "4GX").

[@leosupermoin2743]

@@aiko4139 yes but they announced it over 5 years earlier and it they will shut down the 2g netork. They won't imei block devices. If your device doesn't support voice over lte you will still be able to use data.

[@T1000BG]

Blizzard : Don't you have phones? Australians: !!!!!!

[@ravenof1985]

10:00 i know someone who bought a phone from Aldi ~6months ago, was told by them (via SMS and in a call) that it wasnt going to work after the shutdown and had no choice other than buying a new phone. while my grey market, imported, chinese phone continues to work. Our government tells us it cares about poor struggling people, yet forces telcos to brick a whole heap of peoples phones, and give them no choice but to buy a new one. They say they car about the environment, and force us to follow a whole heap of "efficiency" and "polloution" rules yet sends half a million perfectly working phones to bottom drawers, landfill or recycling. This whole thing has been yet another Australian government led disaster.

[@mejinks1978]

Good old Australian government. These are the people who want to slap a tax on every email sent and stop smoking countrywide.

[@akuma2124]

Remember that time last year when Optus had an outage, and then just in the last week they got a 12 million dollar fine because people couldnt dial 000 during that outage?... Im guessing no one will hold the government accountable for the BS they've now caused. Im not a fan of optus in any way, but just saying this in observation that you know in this situation the government wont be held to; or even admit to messing up so badly with this and its rollout. Also, on the note of international travelers not knowing if their phone will be supported, I've gotta say... this is actually a really big step back, when I look at how far mobile networks have come. I remember in the late 90s and through the 2000's when you travel with a phone, you could easily see if your phone would work in a certain country because it was well documented which GSM bands a phone supported and which bands certain countries/carriers used. That was a system that made sense. Now we're at a point where its like, shrug... just try your luck and hope it works.

[@mattbowd]

The long term outlook of all this seems to be "We will decide what phone you buy" and a rapidly reducing choice. Suspect we'll end up with Pixel, iPhone, Samsung.

[@brightonbabe2139]

Try your luck on arrival so you know. Hope there is a land line nearby.

[@THEGOOD360]

Australian government is so shit but the people seem to be 90% chill.

[@lauchlanguddy1004]

but potato head is the answer

[@jarrod1687]

That's why we let our government fuk us over, because we are chill cowards

[@AwesomeSauce81]

We're not

[@Jack_the_pngtuber]

@@AwesomeSauce81yes, yes we are 😅😅

[@tealkerberus748]

We voted for these clowns after the other mob gave us the ongoing trainwreck that is the NBN. And also sold themselves non-existent water with our money and hid the profits in an offshore tax haven, and a number of other scandals like that or a whole lot worse. Yep. Believe it or not, the party that did THIS to us is less bad than the other option. We're screwed. But do come and have a holiday here. We like visitors.

[@camboi6103]

*puts on tin foil hat* willing to bet this was financially motivated as if a majority of phones were to become unable to do what a phone should be able to do, people would have to buy new phones from TelCos since a majority of tech companies no longer directly sell their products

[@RemusKingOfRome]

Yes, I sus'd that, so planned to buy el cheapo on Ebay later.

[@WhiteNight0204]

More than likely that an infrastructure supplier gave some politician motivational 💰

[@RRKS_TF]

You can still buy phones through brick and mortar stores as well as online through Amazon or UMart, MWave, etc. You would have to be pretty stupid to buy a phone (on a plan) from a telco, that is something that 60 year olds do. Furthermore it won't drive an increase in profits beyond an immediate spike which would be dampened by the cost of removing old 3G equipment from towers and installing new equipment to replace it.

[@blayd_]

Another less-addressed impact of this shutdown is that it increases the stranglehold that Apple, Samsung and Pixel a little bit have on the smartphone market

[@Blueyzachary]

This is crazy. I know 3G isn’t blocked in the USA (even though most major carriers are VoLTE and VoNR exclusively now), but there are some areas where you can only call 911 if you have a VoLTE compatible phone. The FCC has gone to great lengths to ensure carriers keep customers covered. Pre-TMO merger Sprint used to have an IMEI whitelist, and still it wasn’t even close to as bad as the current situation in Australia. This is so avoidable. The band complexity shouldn’t even be a problem in Australia.

[@HonestAuntyElle]

those same zones used to exist in SA. you'd get a text message saying that 000 may be impacted as you are currently travelling in a 4g only area, if your phone didn't support 4g emergency services. The problem is, no one really paid attention to those messages. I support that **phones** and not barcode scanners etc, aren't able to operate if they can't make an emergency call, it's attention grabbing and forces you to take action. But phones that were **able** to call emergency services, being on the block list, and phones that **are not** capable of calling emergency services not being blocked, is criminal negligence, both in terms of e-waste and endangering lives. The turn-off should have been delayed at least a year, considering they were passing laws just days before the cut-off, with a clear test number created (911 anyone?)

[@GYTCommnts]

This is insane. We are living in a dystopia.

[@PleaseGetReal]

I cannot believe how stupid the Minister of Communication is ! She needs to be fired now !

[@jez9951]

I cannot believe how stupid all the people are who bought non australian models online from overseas and expected them to continue to work forever

[@jasonlajoie3786]

Non Australian models? Do you think Australia makes phones?

[@Lordniksidor]

Amazing idea, make all the phone manufacturers have a separate SKU just for Australia then they can add 10%, JB hifi takes 20% then we all pay 132% more wow with genius ideas like that you could be part of our current government. Not like there's whole websites dedicated to phone supported bands and what regions and what telcos they work with because previously no one has been stupid enough to IMEI blacklist perfectly good, working, functional phones for kicks.

[@stefanlacombe2361]

Thanks you Hugh for providing the clearest explanation of the issues with this ill advised shut down. This entire process has been managed so astonishingly poorly! The communication about this has been sorely lacking and the reasoning for the switch off never explained other than providing more 5G bands when the existing 5G already exceeds the needs of the majority of the population. I was using a Sony Xperia 5 iii which was in perfect condition, such that I'd intended to use it for several more years. I'd even gone down the path of updating the modem drivers and telstra MBN file to make VOLTE work, but the IMEI block means there is nothing I could do to make this phone stay connected! This is totally unacceptable from the telcos and the government! It seems that the main phone that can be used here now are Apple, Samsung, Pixel and the home brand options from the telcos, plus a few other bigger brands like Motorola, but nobody can be sure what works and what doesn't! I'm very unimpressed.

[@aftonline]

This has got to be a bonanza for the telcos. Mobile phone sales consultants are now grinning from ear to ear.

[@hellojpg]

Not to mention all the hardware that uses 3g or 4g but doesn't support volte because it's an iOT device that only needs data/m2m that have been now blocked. As usual with tech and the government in Australia it's a total shitshow trainwreck that could be seen coming from miles away.

[@chriskalkman3815]

As an American, this is fucked up. I get it, we need to eventually shut down old methods of telecommunications, but doing it in his manner is a no no.

[@animeloveer97]

We still have 2g and 3g towers the cell companies just don't use it now. It's still used for medical devices and industrial purposes

[@maxdutiel]

Something like this would probably get you sued here in the US.

[@RichardFry-b1f]

even tho Im not australian and dont live in or near australia, I checked out of curiosity on the imei app check thingy and not even one of the phones in my house would work in australia, not a single one thats amazing

[@tomtom1541]

Well depends if you have wifi calling in your country

[@Harith21AL]

Indonesia started this imei blocking in 2020, millions of phones lost cellular service overnight, people woke up in the morning not knowing about the government new rules and found their phones had no service thinking it might be broken but turns out it isn't.

[@irpanfauzi1160]

ins you can unblock your Imei but need to pay alot of Money?

[@WilliamsTech]

And they still actively blocked random international/old unused 4g phones till this day

[@TheDuckPox]

and now they have started to make imported phones (google pixel and iphone 16 for now) to be considered illegal despite paying for taxes to activate the imei.

[@Fataha22]

Not million lol, the rules only affect phone bought after that period lol

[@Fataha22]

​@@irpanfauzi1160nope, phone below 500$ is free

[@thatowensbloke]

this is bloody outrageous. thanks for continuing to bring this to light - we need to stop being so apathetic and fight back. Im not sure how to do this, but hope to find a way.

[@davidwalker575]

I will never stop being surprised at how bonkers Australia is run.

[@embraceuncertainty7127]

We threw out four phones that all had b28 and volte. This was deliberate and motivated by potential profits.

[@elaupresidente]

or the surveillance state that can't back door into some Chinese phones.

[@polandman07]

You could have at least sold them or given them away :(

[@RRKS_TF]

What profits? The profits that will need to go to the removal and replacement of 3G transmitters on towers? That shit is not cheap!

[@davidgarza311]

You should inform a bit, and then keep it in a box. And sue to government

[@bapt_andthebasses]

@@RRKS_TF Nobody asks for these removal, dumb statement AF.

[@thephoenixking1086]

The UK is also shutting down older networks, and I wonder if this will happen here aswell. Many of my family are still using none 5G phones simply because they cannot afford to buy a new one (even something cheap), the UK is in crisis right now and buying a new phone is NOT our priority right now.

[@michealpersicko9531]

in the USA as far as I'm aware and our 3g and 2g were shut off since 2022. I don't remember anything like this happening so maybe it just depends on how stupid the people in the right positions of your country are.

[@sp3lllz]

It won’t be shutdown in the UK until 2033 at that point it should be less of an issue

[@todornikolov2063]

Problem in Australia that Hugh discuss is more complicated than 3G network shutdown.

[@MainInternetUser]

UK energy price is crazy right now maybe leaving the EU at that time wasn't a great idea

[@BillAnt]

The kicker is, that nowadays older networks can be supported simultaneously using SDR towers, it's just software now. And if you're worried about wasting precious bands, they have dynamic allocation which only provides a much is needed. smh UK and Aussies.

[@danielktdoranie]

an Australia really F’ed up, i suspect we’ll see a lot cheap smart phones on eBay shortly

[@alandoesexist]

me as an Indonesian : welcome to the club Australian!!

[@boleds4316]

Indonesian implementation of imei/phone blocking isnt as chaotic as this bruh wkwkw. This is fuckedup, total carwreck ​@@alandoesexist

[@fstop9466]

Why they are utterly worthless now but still good for apps and wifi.

[@DW_25]

Nope, if anything theyve gone up. My phone was impacted

[@masterkamen371]

​@@fstop9466 in lands where the government doesn't work for the corporations, the Australian blocked phones should function perfectly fine.

[@mworld]

The gov likes saying it's for "safety" reasons, when in fact phones that could call triple zero just fine are now blocked putting lives at risk.

[@relaxingnature2617]

Here in Canada we find that 2G amd 3G works much better in wilderness. ....much longer reach than 4g or 5g. and in forest the larger 2G&3G radio waves find their way thru the trees much farther. ..several times farther

[@Seventh-day]

Unfortunately retailers with a range of phones in stock, have no idea whether the phones they are still trying to sell, will work. I am thinking in particular of a mobile phone business. Their sales girls have no idea whether particular phones will work. "It should, it is 5G!"

[@jm6604-c4d]

I'm an occasional visitor to Australia so not sure if my phone will work on my next visit. Does anyone know what will happen if a visitor is using a data only eSim ? However has nobody considered suing the Australian government for damages. A good class action could force the government and networks to replace every affected phone free of charge. BTW, I used to work in the GSM industry back in 2G/3G days including going to standards committee meetings. I think the blame for this ultimately lies at the door of the standards organisation, in my view they were primarily concerned with network operations and left the phone manufacturers to try to keep up with the different standards demanded by each of the network equipment manufacturers. Also, some networks had strange requirements, I remember Telstra in particular had a very non standard requirement that caused headaches for my company's firmware engineers!

[@Minitrucker231]

Sounds like you'd be fooked even with an eSim. Wouldn't matter if it's data only

[@mattbowd]

I think the idea is that the 3G bandwidth is to be reused to improve 5G (could be wrong). Sounds more like commercial interests driving this one.

[@Lordniksidor]

@@jm6604-c4d data only Sim doesn't matter, I tried this on my phone, if the phone IMEI isn't on the whitelist it gets blocked. Even if the Sim is data only and won't make calls or texts. But if it's a tablet, even a tablet that can make calls & texts and can't call over volte it's totally fine no worries and won't get blocked.

[@tin2001]

Other comments suggest this is only Telstra. Which if true means you just need to use Optus instead.

[@Lordniksidor]

Not so, my dual Sim Xiaomi phone got blacklisted on both Optus and Telstra, tried a prepaid Vodafone Sim for kicks and got kicked off that too. Telstra Sim was data only and couldn't make calls but that didn't matter, still got blacklisted and couldn't connect to shit.

[@radishattitude]

4:39 LOL bro called emergency services and then hangs up

[@Danilyn_Livao]

This is wild!😯 Blocking over half a million active phones, including tourist devices, is a massive move. Definitely curious about how this will impact users and visitors moving forward! Thank you for sharing this valuable content! 👍👍

[@CommanderQ]

They could have very easily set up a 'test emergency call centre' on a number such as 111 that did nothing more than put you to a recorded message for people to confirm emergency call functionality. Sure; most phones would have needed a sim-swap (or an emergency call test sim?) but it would have been a way to test.

[@shaunclarke94]

No, they couldn't as the phones aren't programmed to treat that as an emergency number.

[@CommanderQ]

@shaunclarke94 emergency numbers are part of the sim programing.

[@shaunclarke94]

@@CommanderQ that I didn't know, but unfortunately it isn't any more possible to add a number that's not already there?

[@tin2001]

​@@shaunclarke94 SIMs can be programmed remotely by the telco. The commands are sent using literally the same control channel as SMS messages use, but the user just never sees them.

[@shaunclarke94]

@@tin2001 wow, that I didn't know. I'll happily stand corrected on this one then.

[@tigersusyt]

How to get iPod touch in 2024 step-by-step guide: Step 1. Get a plane ticket to Australia Step 2. Go there Step 3. You are done, you now have an iPod touch

[@rayphoenix7296]

Going to Australia gave me a Samsung Galaxy Touch.

[@tigersusyt]

@rayphoenix7296 lmao

[@gasrim]

Finally in the next few years my iPhone 14 Plus will be the new iPod Touch 14th gen Plus.

[@jnawk83]

You missed the step about buying (or having) an iPhone to start with.

[@tigersusyt]

@jnawk83 nah, it can be any phone, it would still function as an ipod touch

[@HydrantTV]

In my country - Poland - telcos are already shutting down 3G, but they do plan to keep 2G for a very long time. They already shut down 2G 1800MHz, but 2G 900MHz is going to stay on for at least a dacade. 4G also won't be shut down. Orange - one of cellular providers in Poland - showed roadmap which technologies and frequencies they do plan to keep. By 2028 or 2032 (Im not sure about the dates) there will be 2G 900MHz, 4G 800MHz and rest of the spectrum - that is 700, 900, 1800, 2100 and 2600MHz of LTE - is going to be assigned to SA 5G. I think this is amazing, since this will allow old LTE devices to be used with somewhat good Internet connection and these that do not support VoLTE, will still be able to make phone calls. This is how it should be done everywhere. Just keep the 2G b8 1,4MHz wide network.

[@sgas]

isnt 5G not necessarily always better? With 4G having some distinct advantages?

[@Tim_2060]

​@@sgas right now most 5G modems can't aggregate that many bands in SA mode, as opposed to 4G or 5G-NSA. This could lead to lower throughout on 5G-SA than 4G or 5G-NSA. Since modem manufacturers are slowly improving 5G SA CA support, this will become a non issue in the future. Once 5G is fully implemented it will definitely be more performant than 4G in pretty much every way, but it's also not magic either.

2G doesn't even need 1.4 MHz. Purely for emergencies, if you have a 5 MHz channel like Play, you can have a 5 MHz LTE channel (actually only 4.5 MHz wide) and put a single GSM carrier in the channel. This should pretty much do for emergencies. The issue in Poland is, that the 900 MHz spectrum is pretty scattered so the carriers there can't create a single B8/n8 LTE/NR carrier.

[@Tim_2060]

Either you let it chill in the guard band or disable a few LTE RB's and let it chill in there, depends on the situation. Theoretically GSM could use as little as 200kHz of bandwidth but that would only support a maximum of 8 voice streams simultaneously, so they generally allocate a bit more than that.

[@HydrantTV]

You are indeed correct. Actually, auction for bands started recently and Play is planning to buy rest of 5MHz of b20 after Sferia. And this is great news for me, since I’m a Play customer. And this is correct too. It’d be hard to “refarm” (don’t know what the word for it is English). But when it comes to b1, they did a pretty good job actually and maybe they do something similar to b8.

[@PleaseGetReal]

I cannot understand why Aussies put up with the corruption and incompetence of Michelle Rowland, the Minister of Communication. She received donation including dinner worth $8900 and did not get fired for this.

[@Rajonas007]

That's what corruption and monopoly looks like

[@Veritas_mens]

Anyone else notice a substantial drop off of the scam calls from spoofed numbers. No one in my family has received a dodgy call in the last few weeks. May be just a coincidence, but I'm not complaining.

[@rayphoenix7296]

I haven't got any calls like that in years.

[@zorbakaput8537]

Staggering incompetence by our government (again), bad enough we are a laughing stock as a nanny state all over the world we now can't even manage our communications. We will be saved by our nanny pollies though, because if you have solar you will be able to charge your EV at night according to our prime mincer. Our government wants Tourism ha ha.

[@zwapz]

Time to skip Aussie on my holiday list. 😄 Damn what crap

[@mzxa9988]

you serious about the solar part? No way someone can be that clueless lol

[@BillAnt]

The Nanny state in full swing. Not just this but many other issues. Yikes! Anyway, just "repair" the IMEI if possible. lol

[@KarlDavies-dn3eg]

Ahh yes moon light charging, not heard of this tech yet? Little worry your gvmnt will tell you it's a brilliant way to charge.

[@dmccurtayne1]

@@BillAntnanny state how’s that make it so by this

[@1vbAPiYk]

08:00 that smug "oh no!" LMAO

[@AbrahamLure]

I love that my cutting edge Sony phone got bricked. Bought brand new two years ago. I'm so mad. Just cannot believe I'm being forced to buying certain phones and brands and only through Telcos. There is NO good reason for the extent of this brickery.

[@-Dash-]

You government is supposed to work for YOU... Who are they REALLY working for?

[@LiEnby]

The government is not ever about working for you.

[@TheSmilePerson]

Probably for the phone companies or for money. I'm pretty sure that that did this because to increase phone sales and probably get a cut from the phone manufacturers

[@gandalfwiz20007]

The goverment is the master You are the slave

[@cosminandreimatei756]

Just for their own money/interests

[@StarkRG]

Which fantasy government are you talking about? Governments work for rich people and large corporations. In the case of Australia, the government's top priority, regardless of which of the two major parties are in charge, is protecting the interests of the mining industry. After that, they care about other industries to varying degrees. The people, though? They only care about our interests at election time, and then they'll only go as far as necessary to appear like they give a shit.