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Customers suddenly find their new phones can't make calls or send texts (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 2 weeks ago by fne8w2ah@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 50 points 2 weeks ago (26 children)

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.

[–] dugmeup@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

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

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

[–] Zanz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

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.

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