The soon-to-be shut down 3G network has for 20 years been a critical service, especially in regional areas, but the industry wants to use the bandwidth to improve the new 4G and 5G systems.
In time that will provide a better service, especially for people in regional areas.
But in the short term there may be thousands of devices that could stop working because they operate on 3G only or they need changes to their settings or hardware.
That includes some phones, watches, iPads, medical devices, mobile phone boosters, farm equipment, even location devices in machinery, trucks and cars.
So what might stop working from Monday?
Affected locations
The people who will be most affected are those who live in remote areas, outside of the existing 3G coverage area, who have been getting what is described by Telstra and Optus as “fortuitous” coverage.
Farmer Richard Wright is one of those.
He has used 3G for years but that could change come Monday, just as he is harvesting his crops.
“It’s incredibly frustrating, particularly coming into harvest when you’re trying to coordinate trucks, headers and staff,” he said.
Richard Wright will lose some connectivity when the 3G network is turned off. (Supplied: Richard Wright)
He has spent tens of thousand of dollars to boost his mobile phone signal and install irrigation sensors and soil moisture probes to run his farm.
But his equipment isn’t picking up a reliable 4G signal now that his local mobile phone tower has been upgraded.
“Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t and I’ve been advised by the manufacturer that it’s all to do with the coverage,” he said.
Telstra has committed to match the existing 3G coverage but not for people who are outside the coverage map, such as Mr Wright.
He is going back to short-wave radio systems to keep in touch with several staff on his property.
“I’ve got two-way radios but not everyone is adjacent to the radio.
“They’ve all got phones in their pockets
“It’s a safety issue.”
Education campaign
Channa Seneviratne is responsible for technical advancement at Telstra. (Supplied: Telstra)
In a rare display of cooperation, Telstra and its major competitor Optus have run a joint campaign for the past two months to get people ready for the shutdown.
It is the last stage of a process that began five years ago when the industry decided to shut down 3G.
Channa Seneviratne, who is responsible for technical advancement at Telstra, said the company had done everything it could to warn people about the change.
“Just in 2024 alone, we’ve sent over 4 million communications via email, SMS or direct mail,” he said.
Some phones will stop working
Older phones that are 3G-only or phones that need changes to the settings to connect to 4/5G will stop working from Monday.
Neither telco could provide figures on how many were still in use but back in July, Optus head of new products, Harvey Wright, provided some figures to a senate committee.
Harvey Wright provided information to a senate hearing. (Supplied)
“There was a total of 266,000 mobile handsets at risk of disconnection [but the] figure has come down to 176,000, which is a reduction of 34 per cent since May,” he said.
A bigger concern was likely to be the thousands of phones Australians had bought on overseas websites.
Known as “grey phones”, many will still be able to make calls when 3G is shut down, but some won’t work for a triple-zero emergency call.
Mr Seneviratne said phones acquired overseas or from online retailers who shipped from warehouses overseas could be configured for different countries or regions to Australia.
Mr Wright said there could be 25,000 Optus customers with those kinds of phones.
Mr Seneviratne said Telstra had created a tool that had been sending warning messages to customers with phones that may not work when 3G was shut down.
“As of last week we’ve had three-quarters of a million interactions with that tool and 35 per cent of them have returned a response, so about 250,000 [people have got a message] saying, ‘You need to take action,'” he said.
Phone users can text “3” to 3498 to check if their phone needs upgrading to 4/5G.
Mobile phone boosters at risk
Tens of thousands of mobile phone boosters used to improve reception in cars, caravans and homesteads around the country could also be affected.
Rob Lansdown has been helping farmers upgrade their mobile phone equipment. (Supplied: Zetifi)
Robert Landsdown, who is the commercial manager of a rural technology business in Wagga Wagga, said there were about 300,000 boosters in use.
He said about a third of them were older models that may need upgrading.
“They are Cel Fi devices, or Telstra Go repeaters and a lot of people have them set on 3G, locked to the 3G band,” he said.
Mr Landsdown said customers should check their model number, look at the specifications sheet and adjust the settings.
“They’ve got to go into the wave app on their device and update the settings to operate on 4G,” he said.
“If people have had those devices for a long time, they may have been sold with an antenna that is only optimised to connect to 3G frequencies.”
Check your medical devices
The National Rural Health Alliance is worried about the hundreds of thousands of medical devices that operate on 3G.
They include fall alarms, cardio monitors, oxygen systems and pacemakers.
Susi Tegen is concerned about the impact of the 3G shut down. (Supplied: National Rural Health Alliance)
Telcos have been working with the aged-care sector and companies selling medical devices, but alliance chief executive Susi Tegen said there was still a risk that someone could die when 3G was turned off.
“Even one life lost or in worse condition because they weren’t able to change over or they missed the communication about it [is too many],” she said.
She said people who had devices such as pacemakers that were implanted in the body needed to check with the company that provided the device in case action was needed.
She is worried about people with phones or fall devices that wouldn’t work in an emergency.
“If you’re a family member of people with these devices please help them because we don’t want them left without a triple-0 option,” she said.
Talius managing director Graham Russell, whose tech company supports the aged care sector, said the sector was ready for the shutdown.
But he was worried about an unknown number of overseas devices bought online because customers would have difficulty finding out if they would continue to work or what action they should take.
“As they are not actively serviced by anyone it will be difficult to ascertain how many [there are],” Mr Russell said.
Free phones on offer
Optus is providing 20,000 free handsets for people it classifies as vulnerable.
Harvey Wright said the company was putting on extra staff during the changeover period.
He said they would provide extra support for people who were elderly, experiencing financial hardship, or had low levels of technical literacy.
“In many cases, we’re offering heavily discounted or even zero-cost phones for customers to stay connected because safety is our priority,” he said.
When will I notice a change?
Telstra has completed upgrades on all of its mobile phone towers.
It says it will take about a week to complete the shutdown, starting on October 28.
Optus still has some mobile phone towers that need upgrading to 4G and 5G so it will keep 3G on in some areas and its shutdown may take a couple of months.
