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Do you live in Australia and have an old module Samsung phone? If so, check your SMS messages as your phone may soon no longer work. Due to recent issues with triple zero and subsequent lawsuits Australian Telcos are blocking devices that cannot fallback to make calls on the national 000 number. Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain has ruled out government assistance to Australians whose mobile phone may be unable to call triple-0. Devices affected by this block will no longer work after 26/11/2025.
The mobile devices affected by the issue are Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy A5 2017, Galaxy J1 2016j, Galaxy J3 2016, Galaxy J5 (2017), Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
Ms McBain said the telecommunications companies were working to assess how many devices were impacted, but the number was estimated to be about 10,000.
[...] In a statement, TPG Telecom, which owns Vodafone, said it had identified a cohort of older Samsung handsets leading into the 3G network shutdown in 2024 that were unable to make triple-0 calls on the TPG/Vodafone mobile network and could not be fixed with a software upgrade.
"These devices were blocked from the Vodafone network as part of the 3G shutdown process," a spokesman said.
"Recently, we became aware that some of those same handsets that worked on other networks were unable to connect to triple-0 when only Vodafone coverage was available.
"These Samsung devices were found to be configured in way that permanently locked them to making triple-0 calls on the Vodafone 3G network even if being used with the SIM of another mobile operator and able to make triple-0 calls on their 4G network. This limitation was not previously known to TPG Telecom."
[...] An Optus spokesman earlier said during emergencies, and at times mobile phones could not connect to its regular network, phones were designed to search for another available network to reach triple-0.
"These situations relate to rare occasions when both the Optus and Telstra networks are unavailable and the phone needs to switch to Vodafone in order to contact emergency services," a spokesman said.
"This only happens under very specific conditions, but it's critically important that all devices can reach triple-0."
Is it the Year of the Linux Phone yet?
(Score: 5, Informative) by BeaverCleaver on Sunday October 26, @08:57PM (4 children)
You joke, but the shutdown of analog TV came with free set-top boxes, so that Trinitron from 1985 would work just fine.
Now look at the 3G shutdown. ZERO government support. Mountains of e-waste, not just phones. Hardware like telemetry systems, remote weather stations, pump controllers, hell the entire public transport ticketing system here in Canberra had to be replaced because it was based on 3G.
I live in Canberra (our nation's capital) and I can't get a 4G signal at my house. So while it's convenient to blame Samsung for some dropped emergency calls, the problem goes deeper is even worse. They routinely drop emergency calls (people have died because they can't phone for help). Recently they also leaked millions of records of customer details, including people who weren't even customers anymore. Why did they even retain those records?
Aussie telcos are scum. They hate their customers and they hate the environment.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday October 27, @10:51AM (3 children)
ATO asks for a minimum 5 years retention for all transactions that have influence over taxes, sometimes longer [ato.gov.au]. Purging older records w/o breaking the integrity of their dataset? That's a cost for them, storage space is cheap and the penalties for security breaches are small enough to write as "cost of doing business, pass them on the customers"
I'm yet to hear about a country calling their telcos "beloved". Or even "Meh, they're OK, I guess".
Yeah, naaah, mate - they are only contemptuous towards their customers, one doesn't hate his fleecing stock.
They only their hate their low wage employees/contractors (because they're many and still cost money). As such, their low wage employees do the minimum that still keep them employed.
Not much different than any big corporation retailing services to individual consumers.
Understandable. Just compare what's the cost for 100% mobile coverage of, say, Germany vs a "decent coverage" of Australia. Betcha that only the mobile comm towers on the Eyre Highway would be enough for 100% coverage of a small European country somewhere in the Balkans.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BeaverCleaver on Monday October 27, @09:20PM (2 children)
I'm not looking for 100% coverage. All I ask for something equivalent to what the 3G network offered before it was switched off. I don't think it's too much to ask in 2025that a mobile phone works in our nation's capital. This is not the Eyre highway, it's Canberra!
And I stand by the "hate" comment. People died during the last 000 outage. You talk of "fleecing stock," most farmers try to prevent their animals from dying unnecessarily.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday October 27, @10:42PM (1 child)
Look, I'm not saying you are wrong in your expectations, I'm trying to provide an explanation why those things happen and unfortunately will continue to happen.
Cell sizes decrease with the cell-phone generation number, by the laws of physics. Same coverage means higher number of cells and/or higher transmission power are necessary.
One can think of a corporation as a "legal person", but don't fall to the mistake of "anthropomorphising" it.
Let me put it this way: you a free to think people aren't cargo, mate [youtube.com] but you'd be wrong when you project the thinking to large corporations, they can (and some will) apply nothing personal, Jack, it's just good business [youtube.com] - because they can afford to do so.
If you (as the state) want to make sure no corner that involve human life is cut, you arrange the regulations so that the corporations can no longer afford to cut those corners. Sure, you may run the risk of that corporate business closing down, because they can no longer afford the cost (by the law of diminishing returns the cost will explode), but then you (as the state) are bound to find a solution.
One on top of the other, business bureaucracy and state bureaucracy are similar to the point of equivalence - and the cause in both of the cases is "people doing just their job". Those kind of things will continue to happen.
Most do. Some don't [abc.net.au]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by BeaverCleaver on Tuesday October 28, @04:59AM
No risk in this case, both Telstra and Optus are making plenty of money. Links: https://www.techfinitive.com/optus-holds-revenue-steady-at-4-02b-for-first-half-of-fy25/ [techfinitive.com]
https://thenightly.com.au/business/telstra-posts-23b-profit-up-30-per-cent-boosted-by-mobile-growth-and-cost-cuts-investors-rewarded-buyback-c-19677271 [thenightly.com.au]
Let's also remember that in the case of Telstra, it was the Australian taxpayer who paid for the first generation of their network.
Unfortunately the state seems either disinclined or unable to hold large corporations to account. We see the same situation with the Australian banking cartel - a royal commission fond that they were indeed treating their customers like shit. The royal commission made some recommendations, most of which weren't followed. Banks continue t make record profits.
What really irks me is that we're told we live in a "cost of living crisis" as if it's somehow not related to simple "corporate greed." But I digress.