Politics & Council
14 April, 2024
4G ready: Telstra confident of smooth shire changeover
TELSTRA has converted its 36 Loddon Shire mobile towers to be 4G ready for the June 30 end of the the 3G network. Regional manager Steve Tinker said: “All Loddon shire sites are now 4G capable.” He said physical and software upgrades had been...
TELSTRA has converted its 36 Loddon Shire mobile towers to be 4G ready for the June 30 end of the the 3G network.
Regional manager Steve Tinker said: “All Loddon shire sites are now 4G capable.”
He said physical and software upgrades had been completed.
“It will be very rare today that customers with a 4G device will see 3G and that would be because of the device or its settings,” Mr Tinker said.
Optus will end its 3G network in November. Other telcos have already flicked the bandwidth.
Concern about mobile coverage in country areas has seen Federal Parliament’s rural and regional affairs and transport committee launch an inquiry into the 3G network shutdown.
The Government-majority committee inquiry will report by the end of November.
Key areas to be probed are:
the impact on access to triple zero emergency calls;
the number of devices and customers affected by the shutdown;
the absence of 4G services in rural and regional areas previously covered by 3G;
the impact on elderly and health-compromised Australians who use medical alert devices on the 3G network and the impact on industries that use 3G devices; and
the impact of a lack of telecommunications services on the economic and social circumstances of those who live in regional Australia.
Mr Tinker said the 3G technology was more than 20 years old.
While the new 5G technology is in Boort and Donald,and also rolled out by Telstra in major regional areas of Bendigo and Echuca, no further tower upgrades have been announced for the Loddon Shire. However, Mr Tinker predicts 4G will continue for some years.
Meanwhile, Mr Tinker said there were no plans by Telstra to provide temporary boosts to connectivity in communities along the Loddon River during peak visitation times.
Telstra gave a boost to connectivity for last week’s Rheola Charity Carnival.
Telstra said its 4G platform connects 99.5 per cent of the population.
People with a device that can only use 3G won’t be able to connect to Telstra’s network after June 2024.
If the mobile device doesn’t have Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology, even if it uses 4G data, it will not be able to make voice calls on the Telstra network.
Telstra says not all VoLTE enabled devices support emergency VoLTE calling, meaning they will not be able to make an emergency call to 000 once 3G closes.
However, Mr Tinkler said the number of 3G devices still in use across the Loddon Shire was low.
“The Loddon Shire communities are in a very good position for the end of 3G,” he said.