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I thought I would post an update and just make note that today (24 July 2025) marks 1 year since the first Hearings for the Senate Inquiry into the Shutdown of the 3G Mobile Network.
On 23 July 2024 I was called as a Witness after writing a 27 page 10,000 word Submission to the Inquiry in May 2024, and on 24 July we heard from the Telcos, regulators and the Department (amongst others).
I spoke to the Committee for approximately 1 hour, though was originally due to only speak for 30 mins.
Link to that section of the hearing can be found below if you haven't seen/heard it previously along with the 24 July hearing.
Senate Inquiry - Shutdown of the 3G mobile network | 23/07/2024 - 2hrs 10m - James Parker
Senate Inquiry - Shutdown of the 3G mobile network | 24/07/2024 - Canberra ACT (Telcos & Regulators)
If I could go back a year ago and have a do-over there is almost nothing I wouldn't do differently, knowing what happened and how things went. I frequently think about what I could have done differently and what I need to do next.
I thought I would also take this as an opportunity to provide you with a brief update.
I continue to be deeply frustrated with the apparent lack of action on this issue, despite Regulators being fully aware of the problem and having been in direct contact with both the Department of Infrastructure and the Mobiles Branch of the ACCC, along with writing to the ACMA in March.
There is awareness of this problem by regulators (and possibly some willingness to address it), however there is seemingly a lack of expediency to do anything about it. (Though I would like to be proven wrong).
In fact Telstra still today has Emergency Calling standardisation issues that have not been fixed!
As I wrote in my March 'Compliance Priorities' Submission to the ACMA Telstra only supports IPv6 for Emergency Calling, whereas Optus and Vodafone support both IPv4 and IPv6 which is the intended 'standard compliant' approach as outlined by the GSMA in 2022 and raised by a Telecoms Expert at the EENA in 2022.
You can read more about that in the Submission I made to the ACMA and the 42 page 13,000 word letter I wrote to the (then) Minister in late March.
Submission to the ACMA - RE Compliance Priorities 2025-2026 - James Parker - 2025-03-24
You can also still connect with phones the telcos are 'officially supported' that cannot call 000 and people still have no way to actually test individual devices without actually going to place an Emergency Call.
That's not to mention people in regional areas left completely high and dry with degraded network coverage.
Some of this was highlighted recently in an ABC 7.30 story.
Accusations that Telstra has exaggerated the reach of its mobile network | 7.30 - 8 July 2025
New Parliament
This week also marks the opening of the 48th Parliament.
The Prime Minister and Senior Cabinet Figures have been frequently talking about how important fairness is, and I hope that in this term of Parliament fairness is more than just a slogan and is a made central focus on this and other issues.
However that remains to be seen.
I would ask of you all to please once again take the opportunity to write to your Local Member, Senators for your State and the new Communications Minister about this issue. This can't be resolved without your help and continued pressure from consumers.
Communications Minister Contact
https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/wells/contact
The (new) Communications Minister is actually now my Local Member Anika Wells, and I also intend to write to her soon.
Transparency
At an absolute minimum, there must be transparency from the Telcos for what they are blocking, when something is blocked, why something is blocked and the criteria used to block or not block specific models.
All of the data, including the historical blocking lists, needs to be transparent.
There is much more that can be done here around transparency.
Why this hasn't happened yet is beyond me.
Vodafone still has no public IMEI/TAC Checker tool, now more than 18 months since they shutdown their 3G Network and their SMS 3498 Checker (which was the only one left working) now appears to not be getting updated, with the last result I have being from early June. (Usually the results would update the first week of each month.)
It's obvious that the telcos have failed to do proper analysis (Optus especially), and Telstra due to their network standardisation issues they blocked far more devices models than they needed to.
Phones that require 3G for 000 now just get stuck on calling, so the telcos know they are blocking devices in error.
Where is the accountability?
As a reminder for those that may have missed it, in May I launched an online blocking comparison website that allows users to easily compare the blocking results for each telco.
On the website you can easily select a make and model and find out what networks a device (TAC) is blocked or supported on. (Though I have very limited Vodafone data)
You can visit the site at isthisphoneblocked.net.au
It was also recently mentioned in an ABC News Article from late May.
ABC News: Telstra and Optus are inconsistently blocking phones. The regulator doesn't know how many
The aim of the site is two fold, to provide you the consumer with a way to actually know what devices are actually blocked (including what phones you can use on the networks), as well as to try and shine a light on the issue and bad pre-shutdown analysis by the telcos.
3G Shutdowns & Device Compatibility
In relation to 3G shutdowns, the mismanagement of it, and telcos blocking perfectly compatible phones sold by their competitors.
I thought I would also mention that many Canadian Carriers are due to Shutdown 3G this year with Rogers due to Shutdown on 31 July 2025. (Some New Zealand providers are due to shutdown this year as well, though some have delayed now until early 2026!)
Given I have a very large IMEI/TAC Database for phone models I ran those models through the IMEI 'Checker Tools' of Canadian Providers Rogers and Telus, and I found some very alarming results and I thought it important to share.
Both the Rogers and Telus IMEI 'Compatibility' Checkers only show phones that are 'whitelisted' as compatible, even if VoLTE works out of the box and the device uses a global VoLTE profile.
With the data there isn't a single Asus phone that Rogers or Telus say is "Compatible", even 2023/2024 models, including US Market Variants!
There are also 0 'Nothing' phones listed as 'Compatible' by either carrier, though Telus knows they are VoLTE Capable.
There also isn't a single Xiaomi or HTC Phone Rogers says is 'officially compatible' and only a single OnePlus phone they say is.
That being the 2014 OnePlus One which almost certainly doesn't work for VoLTE given its age (or at minimum doesn't work properly).
On top of that, only ~13% of 4G/5G OnePlus Models are listed as "Compatible" by Telus.
Telus also says only ~17% of all Xiaomi models are "Compatible" but say ~70% are Not Compatible but VoLTE Capable. (Based on hidden database data)
Telus compatibility data also says that only ~7% of 4G/5G Xperia's are "Compatible", but ~29% are VoLTE Capable but "Not Compatible".
A few weeks ago I posted this on /r/rogers following on from reports that customers with 4G and 5G devices were being prematurely disconnected from mobile services.
MobileSyrup - Rogers, Fido customers furious as service cut off ahead of 3G shutdown - 11 July 2025
Rogers advise on their 'Compatibility Checker' that affected 'incompatible' devices 'will no longer get service'.
That reddit post was then picked up by the Canadian Mobile Tech News site MobileSyrup.
A link to that article can be found below, but it seems that Canadian Consumers are headed down the same sort of path, though it remains to be seen if 'incompatible' devices that do work are artificially blocked or not.
MobileSyrup - Hundreds of phones won’t work on Rogers’ network without 3G - 17 July 2025
Recently OnePlus posted a community thread to "provide some clarity" as they are seeing "some misleading information about OnePlus devices not working on VoLTE networks"
A link to that can be found below.
https://community.oneplus.com/thread/1910099876880842756
It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days and weeks.
As always, you are welcome to contact me if you have any further information you want to share, multiple contact methods are available.
https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/about
Thank you for all the support and interest with this to date and please continue to share the recent ABC story about this, the petition and the link to the blocking comparison website.
Please also take the time to write to your Local Member and the Senators for your state!
It's very important even if the responses have been severely lacking.
You are also welcome to send through copies of the responses you receive or have received.
There is still more that can be done, including with your help, there is power in numbers, but it requires continued pressure from consumers.
Regards
James