Internet providers in Australia will soon be shutting down 3G coverage. The move will leave millions of devices needing to upgrade according to Anthony Petts, the Sales director of telecom company M2M Connectivity per news.com.au.
Starting from December, Vodafone will lead the charge out of 3G obscurity.
It’ll be followed by Telstra who plan to switch off its signals in June 2024.
Last will be Optus who will press the “off” button in September next year.
Horrifyingly, 3G is still prevalent in our country. Although, not in the way you might think.
Heaps of devices still use the network for more simple tasks that require internet access.
We’re talkin’ phones, eftpos machines, cars, tablets and even security cameras.
The worst part? Over 200,000 medical alarms still use the 3G network which sounds like the government’s problem but hopefully it won’t become your problem if you ever find yourself in a medical jam.
“An elder or someone else with a vulnerability who is relying on that alarm for an emergency response simply won’t get one,” said David Waldie from Eevi, a company that makes such devices per Nine.
There are also concerns that the eradication of 3G will cause connection issues for parts of regional Australia.
“It’s certainly really important to make sure that you make that change (to 4G or 5G) prior to June 2024,” said Mike Marom, Telstra’s regional bossman in an interview with 7NEWS.
“We want to use the platform that 3G is on, and put that into our 4G and 5G networks,” he continued.
Huge if true.
I’m sure we’d all love it if when driving through regional Australia, our Spotify didn’t cut out in the middle of a song and go dead for half an hour.
No more 3G crumbling under the weight of song streaming? That’s a future we can all get behind.
If you need to know what phones will be affected by the switch-off, look no further than Optus’ listicle here.
Header image credit: SolStock via iStock.
