24 July 2024 12:11 pm Views - 66
Telstra and Optus are giving away mobile phones for free, ahead of the impending shutdown of their 3G networks.
More than 450,000 Australians could be affected by the switchover, a Senate inquiry has been told.
With five weeks to go, Optus is offering 20,000 free handsets to customers "facing hardship or other vulnerabilities" and $400 store credits to help others replace their 3G phones.
"We're removing as many barriers as possible to customers upgrading," Optus executive Harvey Wright told the committee.
"We realise we're in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and the last thing people need is another bill to pay, effectively."
Telstra, meanwhile, has given away more than 12,000 handsets for free ahead of its shutdown, which has been in the works for almost five years.
"As with all transitions of this kind, we expect there'll always be some people who don't take action to upgrade their device," Telstra executive John Hewitt told the committee.
"We remain confident that the plans and processes we have in place for the closure will deliver a smooth transition for the vast majority of our customers."
Optus predicts up to 150,000 of its customers will fail to upgrade before the 3G closure.
Concern for subset of 4G phones
TPG Telecom, which owns Vodafone, closed its 3G network in January and told the committee there's been "minimal disruptions to customers, with very low levels of customer complaints".
Telstra and Optus will close their networks from August 31 and September 1 respectively, meaning phones, EFTPOS machines, medical alarms and security cameras that rely solely on 3G will stop working from those dates.
The telcos are sending regular reminders to customers affected and have launched an SMS checker tool which Australians can use to determine whether they need to take action to upgrade their mobile phones.
But of greater concern to the federal government is a subset of older 4G handsets which, because of the way they're configured, default to the 3G network for emergency calls.
Many of these phones have been purchased overseas and on the "grey market" and the owners may not realise they can't dial Triple-0 until after the 3G network has been switched off.
The number of devices in that category appears to have fallen from a peak of around one million in April to around 100,000 today, according to the Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
The telco executives told the committee they first identified the potential issue with older 4G handsets mid-last year but only reported to the government in February once they understood the scale.
Telstra — which was forced to delay its planned closure by two months — said it had left "no stone unturned", analysing 14 billion call records and eight million Triple-0 call records to identify the number of customers potentially affected.
Flying doctors 'nervous', opt for satellites
The seven million Australians living in rural, regional and remote Australia are being assured that they will have "equivalent" 4G coverage once the 3G network has been switched off.
Mr Wright said Optus had spent years upgrading its network and told the committee, the telco's 4G footprint is now greater than its 3G.
“This is a competitive environment and the last thing we want to do is make our customers unhappy through this process because they’ll leave, it’s quite simple, particularly in regional areas,” he told the committee.
“We fight very hard to acquire customers and we’re going to fight very hard to retain customers through this process.”
Despite these assurances, the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) told the committee that it uses tracking devices and duress alarms that rely on 3G and it was "nervous" about getting a signal on the newly-expanded 4G network.
As a precaution, the RFDS has invested $200,000 in Starlink satellites to ensure devices, which are crucial to staff safety, continue to work.
"The up-front costs are about $200,000 per annum and the ongoing costs will probably be around $50,000 — $60,000 a year," RFDS chief executive Greg Sam told the committee.
"Our money can be put to better use out there."