This isn’t regulatory. It’s Optus deciding that if they didn’t sell the handset or its foreign bought it is will be blocked. Because of reasons…
And don’t ask questions because software is hard, and telecom is too technical for the plebs.
It’s nothing but a blatant cash grab hidden in a thin veneer of technical babble because it’s tough for modern journalists to question engineering.
Just days ahead of the shutdown, Australia’s media regulator ACMA finalised a new “direction” (basically a rule) that meant telecom companies had to refuse service to all phones that relied on 3G for making emergency calls.
The idea was to prevent people from mistakenly believing that phones were fully working, only to realise they were unable to make emergency calls when the crucial moment came.
Australians with older 4G phones may also be caught out because of the way the phones are configured.
It is up to the telcos to work out which phones are affected, notify the owners, block their phones, and help make other arrangements such as low- or no-cost replacement phones.
However, as Telstra and Optus noted during a Senate inquiry into the shutdown, telecom companies are unable to tell which individual devices suffer from this problem unless have they sold them.
I’m not saying it’s not partly on the providers, but validating that a bunch of obscure phones that aren’t sold in your country meet new regulatory requirements is not as easy as you’re making it out to be.
That’s the reason why every other fucking country still has either 3G or 2G activated. 4G is just a shitshow for making calls.
It’s not a bunch of a large number. It is a set number of phones from well known providers from a few countries.
Basically no one wanted to pay for one Business Analyst to read documentation and make phone calls to providers. For a program that has years and millions in it.
Or worse, cause it is out of scope
Or the worst, so they could sell the “buy from the provider” bullshit
Regulatory compliance of hardware is not, and should not be, the responsibility of the service provider. It’s the responsibility of the manufacturer to have their hardware certified basically everywhere.
Frankly, the rules shouldn’t even allow providers to make that determination. They should either be certified to meet the requirements by an independent agency, or have providers be prohibited from allowing them.
They’re actively blocking North American and international iPhones from connecting to their Network. Apple has updates for each region that automatically download when you get there, but they’re claiming it’s a trade secret so only the phones they sell can get that update that’s made by Apple for them. It isn’t even a firmware update it’s a little app that downloads in the background. Google does the same thing with Android, the pixel line, and anything running the stock with Google services or pixel experience.
Read the article. Optus is not bothering checking. Just closing stuff off.
I did read the article. Checking is not and should not be their responsibility.
The only legitimate way to check is to do actual, intensive, independent testing of every device in question, specific to your country’s regulations. Spec sheets are not a valid approach to verifying that a device will work.
How do you think spec sheets work? Engineers rely on data a d there are industry standards. That is the whole point of documentation. Even little motors and resistors have documentation that is relied on. You really think this is not documented accurately?
You really think that Optus is intensely checking and verify every device they sell? They rely on the documentation! They are a retailer of phones.
The way that Aussies think is always interesting. I find a lot of people bend over backwards to justify the reasons for companies. Instead of standing up for customers these arguments seem to look like a shining example of “out of scope” decisions. I have seen in too many corporate meetings and decision makers.
Everywhere else on the planet, in order for a device to be cleared for sale, that specific model undergoes heavy testing for regulatory compliance by a government agency.
“The specs said it was fine” is literally never going to be a valid legal defense, and making that argument will get you laughed out of court. Either it’s actually certified to be used as you’re allowing it to be used, or you get the hammer dropped on you, as you should.
They also refused to use the standard voice over LTE and refuse to let any thing that they didn’t sell try to connect to their voice over LTE even if it’s compatible. Leaving restricted Apple from enabling voice over LTE for iPhones not from Australia even though it’s just a software update that you need that doesn’t run on the firmware level.
If only those affected could call for an appointment to swap to those low or no cost phones.
The carrier doesn’t decide that.
I literally quoted the part that required carriers to block ineligible phones.
Im sorry you were unable to percieve the sarcasm ridiculing the legislation for its shortsightedness.
Are Japan radio frequencies the same as Australia?
This is a safety issue — a matter of life and death — so if there is any doubt, we are compelled by law to block to protect customers,
What is that mental gymnastics? They are blocking customers in life and death situations from making emergency calls.
The telecoms are using bad-faith interpretation of the new rules to require their customers to buy (often identical) phones directly from them. This is a corporate money-grab and it needs to be aggressively addressed.
Guessing some of the commenters have never dealt with Telstra here in Australia - it’s already reported that these telcos just flat out never tested any phone that they haven’t sold - phones that up until now were actually working perfectly fine (and even have the same model handset being sold by Telstra/Optus/Vodaphone etc) suddenly disconnected.
It is purely laziness on the part of Telstra and the rest of them and they are using it as an excuse to get people to buy their handsets instead - have not seen one of the “offers” of zero cost replacements either……
Telstra are just corporate scum and this could have been handled a whole lot better but then again you only have to look at the shitfight that we have here called the NBN - a national government funded internet network that the telcos will charge you more than the rest of the developed world to access and nowhere near the speeds, level or service or quality as seen in the rest of the world……
Nobody here in Australia is really surprised this was a massive cock up and anyone who is mustn’t have ever heard of Telstra then……
They should have built a solution where the phones that haven’t been tested get cut off, but get an SMS telling them to activate the phone, call SOS once. For the first SOS call, they intercept it, check that the phone was able to make the call, then unblock the phone, and after that, allow SOS calls as normal.
That would require “actually doing work” though.
lol fuck every tourist in the ass sideways I guess.
