Telstra and Optus will delay the planned closure of their 3G networks in order to conduct a final public safety awareness campaign amid concerns that emergency services calls and medical devices could be affected.
They are replacing 3g coverage with 4g equivalents (low frequency bands) so it shouldn’t get worse. And I don’t believe there is any other technical advantage to 3g over long distances but I’m no expert…
It was suggested to me that they have no intention of deploying old 3G resources to 4G. They will go straight to 5G which is why our 4G phones will no longer work.
They have been sending endless messages that I have to buy a new phone but refuse to say why.
Some 4G phones don’t support 4G calling correctly or with all networks.
Check whether your phone actually uses 4G (VoLTE) for calls – to sort-of test this, make a call while connected to mobile data and note whether the signal meter’s 4G indication drops to 3G(H+/HSPA) or something during the call.
A more insidious version of this issue is that some phones do VoLTE just fine, but only use 3G for 000 calls.
Some phones only support VoLTE with some networks. There’s a chance that an appropriate firmware upgrade could add support for some network/device combos.
Yep, this is me. Bought 1 yr vodafone prepaid, after getting reminded to enable VoLTE on my phone (a 2019 model), which I did. But, the phone doesn’t actually do VoLTE calls, so come Vodafone’s 3g shutdown weeks later I suddenly could no longer make or receive ANY phone calls. Internet/data works fine.
Ended up getting a cheap new phone just so I can make phone calls in an emergency.
They are replacing 3g coverage with 4g equivalents (low frequency bands) so it shouldn’t get worse. And I don’t believe there is any other technical advantage to 3g over long distances but I’m no expert…
@vividspecter @Baku
It was suggested to me that they have no intention of deploying old 3G resources to 4G. They will go straight to 5G which is why our 4G phones will no longer work.
They have been sending endless messages that I have to buy a new phone but refuse to say why.
Some 4G phones don’t support 4G calling correctly or with all networks.
Check whether your phone actually uses 4G (VoLTE) for calls – to sort-of test this, make a call while connected to mobile data and note whether the signal meter’s 4G indication drops to 3G(H+/HSPA) or something during the call.
A more insidious version of this issue is that some phones do VoLTE just fine, but only use 3G for 000 calls.
Some phones only support VoLTE with some networks. There’s a chance that an appropriate firmware upgrade could add support for some network/device combos.
I’ll add that some Xiaomi phones need a dialer code in order to enable VoLTE support. It’s only with the stock OS (custom ROMs shouldn’t be affected).
Yep, this is me. Bought 1 yr vodafone prepaid, after getting reminded to enable VoLTE on my phone (a 2019 model), which I did. But, the phone doesn’t actually do VoLTE calls, so come Vodafone’s 3g shutdown weeks later I suddenly could no longer make or receive ANY phone calls. Internet/data works fine.
Ended up getting a cheap new phone just so I can make phone calls in an emergency.