The national shutdown of the 3G network last month has left some older and regional Australians frustrated after their device stopped working.
Barbara Baird, 83, lives in the bush near Meredith in Victoria and doesn’t like doing things over the phone at the best of times.
“I lived with no electricity for 35 years or so, I was persuaded to buy a mobile phone just a few years ago when one of my nieces was going to have a grandchild, she wanted to be able to send me photos of her grandchild.”
Before the 3G shutdown, she was warned by Telstra that her phone would stop working, despite it technically having access to the 4G network.
“It was really a pain in the A, hearing that on the 28th, this phone will not be able to be used,” she told 9News.com.au.
She was assured she needed to buy a new phone, even though she could see the 4G logo on her old phone.
Baird turned to her local Neighbourhood House, a community centre where manager Leah Phillips was able to help her figure out why her old phone was going to be no good, and eventually helped set up her new phone.
Phillips said she’s seen a half-dozen local residents who have been left frustrated and bewildered after their devices, including phones, iPads, and even TV set-top boxes stopped working.
In August this year, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) made the decision to block phones from their mobile network if they used 4G for data, but not for making calls.
Phones that used 4G for normal calls, but have to switch to the old 3G network for calling triple zero, have also been blocked from the network.
That means some phones that are technically 4G compatible have been shut down because of the risk of being isolated in an emergency.
In the increasingly digital world, Phillips said the 3G shutoff was absolutely leaving older Australians in rural towns behind.
“It’s disgusting, I have to say,” Phillips said.
“I wasn’t sitting in this chair, a lot of my people would be disconnected and wouldn’t have any access to anything.”
The peak body for Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria said their local hubs have seen a steady uptake in visits since the shutoff, with more people turning to community help for their digital literacy.
“The local neighbourhood centre or neighbourhood house, is often the only place where you can find a human in this day and age,” Keir Patterson, chief executive of Neighbourhood Houses Victoria.
“Even if you ring up a contact centre, you know, you’ll have some complex options to click through, and then you’ll have to often ID yourself before you even get to speak to a human.
“In Neighborhood houses, our doors are always open.”
Before the shutoff came into effect, along with the decision to block some 4G-compatible phones, the telecommunications Ombudsman warned the communications authority that people who are unfamiliar with high tech, the elderly, or people with a disability could be impacted.
ACMA estimated more than 250,000 devices in use at the start of November would be cut off.
Neighbourhood Houses Victoria said three million Australians had been impacted by the shutdown, and are leading a push for federal government funding for the community services sector.
“I think it is time to formally recognise the role of neighbourhood centres and neighbourhood houses in digital connection,” Patterson said.
“With 1000 centres around Australia and a lot of them in regional and remote communities, we are ideally placed to provide this kind of essential support. We just need the federal government funding and support to be able to do it.”
