🇦🇺 3G network closure - Australia

[IainM]

@ddiluted1

Is there a reason the later FPs are being blocked at the border? Is it all to do with the recent changes made re: access to 000?

It seems to be part of a push from ACMA to clamp down on importation of a range of devices that are in breach of or aren’t certified against Australian regulatory requirements.

I don’t think we have any hard evidence but yes I think it’s a reasonable hypothesis that the clamp down is a result of the trouble the tens of thousands of uncertified devices caused ACMA in the lead up to and the aftermath of the 3G shutdown and the intertwined new emergency calling regulations.

[dt90125]

@IainM

Because there’s different attitudes among the networks about how to determine whether a phone can successfully use the camp on.

Ah, so the other networks will “allow it”, but not sure it will succeed (again, due to the absence of testing and hard cold facts). This makes the engineer in me twitch uncontrollably.

Thanks for that!

[ddiluted1]

We’ve never had cause to use 000 so am curious as to whether our call would get through.

[IainM]

Part of the trouble is it’s not as simple as that.

Multiple people in this thread can attest that they have either accidentally or in a time of need reached 000 from their FP5 (myself included).

But that doesn’t prove that it would also work when I wasn’t within range of my normal network. Or that it would work without a SIM installed. Or that it would correctly traverse the cascade of mechanisms that should be tried in what order. These are the sorts of things an accredited tester can test in a controlled environment, but is hard-to-impossible to determine via individuals doing random things in the real world. Hence @dt90125’s twitching as an engineer.

[kedurham]

I wonder if Sarah Henderson has a FP5? Seems her test 000 calls yesterday didn’t fall back to Optus or Voda.

[dt90125]

Time and again, they stress “don’t make test calls to 000”. Politician goes out and does exactly that. They should be publicly called out for that.

From one of Telstra CFO’s press meetings yesterday, it sounded like a significant fraction of the follow up call backs were to people “just testing”. Sheesh.

[IainM]

@kedurham

I wonder if Sarah Henderson has a FP5? Seems her test 000 calls yesterday didn’t fall back to Optus or Voda.

Haha. Yeah when I heard that Telstra was experiencing a partial outage where some calls get through and done don’t, I wondered if they’d ultimately cop flack for not wilting their network. I’d say this might be the beginning of that.