This guy had a good take on it all
The end result is that basically if you want to get a handset you know will work, the average consumer’s only real choice is to buy from the network. At their prices. Funny how things work out.
I’m in America on Verizon and mine just randomly stopped working today and occasionally fucked up for hours. I have an s23u
TBH, LTE certification always seemed like a way to force carrier locked phones to me.
Which makes it massively more difficult to switch.
IE vendor lock in.
All if the examples of blocking appear to be from Optus in the article. And anecdotally they seem to have been the most heavy handed with this. So while there might be further blocking over time on the other networks, I’d start by switching to the Vodafone or Telstra networks if you end up blocked by Optus.
I’m just waiting for my 12 month sim to expire so I can leave Optus simply because they hired Gladys Berejiklian.
Anyone know why this bullshit is being allowed by govt?
How did voice over LTE end up needing carrier software approval on top of having the right hardware?
Is this telcos writing legislation for yet another ignorant communications minister?
All I see is limited consumer choice, generation of completely unnecessary e-waste and a giant “fuck off” sign to international tourists.
It’s pretty similar to the analogue tv signal shutdown in 2010. The difference though was you could buy a digital tuner and plug it into your tv and keep using it.
3G is taking up a lot of spectrum space and they need to free it up for future data technology. It is also used by a very small (and shrinking) percentage of people, while costing too much to maintain.
It has to die. Telcos gave more than a year’s warning. Then an extended grace period. I don’t really know how they could have done this without annoying some people.
While I move in a bubble of nerds who tend to have decent gear, I don’t actually know anyone affected by this shutdown first-hand.
But that Spectrum being used for 3G is beneficial. Not just for support of older devices but also increased, redundant coverage.
This purely Corporate Welfare legislation, which is going to backfire on the corporations when they realise they have to build more infrastructure to provide the same coverage.
It is going to be detrimental to product consumers because they won’t have the same amount of coverage. Also, the higher bandwidth of 5G is going to increase backhaul requirements which mean that the person calling 000 using VoLTE will need to compete with the person steaming 4K Netflix while playing CoD.
The only winners in the long-term will be the advertisers and data miners, who somehow manage to bloat a 4kB website to 40mB.
They gave minimal warning about the emergency calling issue, and only a few weeks warning on the fact that “non-compliant” devices would be outright blocked (and each network has their own method on deciding on what is or isn’t compliant).
And even the requirement for VoLTE support wasn’t communicated early on.
Nevertheless, I agree that 3g needs to go just that it’s been characterised by poor communication and heavy handedness.
But the telcos give big donations!
