Optus reveals nearly half a million phones may be unable to dial Triple Zero
Senate estimates heard thousands of devices were being tested for Triple Zero connectivity. (ABC News)
In short:
Telcos have blocked thousands of Samsung devices, and are testing hundreds of thousands more, to determine whether they can make Triple Zero calls.
It was revealed in October that dozens of older Samsung models could not call emergency services on the Vodafone network following the 3G shutdown.
What's next?
Telcos will be grilled at next week's Senate inquiry into the Optus Triple Zero outage.
Optus has told regulators around 470,000 Samsung devices using its network may be unable to call Triple Zero (000), in what the telco has described as a "worst case scenario".
The figure was provided to a Senate estimates hearing, which is examining recent revelations that dozens of older Samsung models have been unable to connect to Vodafone to make Triple Zero calls following the flawed shutdown of the 3G network.
Vodafone's owner, TPG Telecom, has revealed a customer died last month after outdated software blocked his phone from calling emergency services. At the time, its mobile network was operational and no outages had been reported.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has told senators TPG has since blocked 7,152 Samsung phones affected while Telstra has identified 114,527 customers with devices that need software updates.
Of those, 4,158 cannot be upgraded and will be blocked between now and January.
In a website post, Telstra said the testing showed the phones were not connecting to the Vodafone network when trying to make Triple Zero calls — but only when the Telstra or Optus networks were unavailable.
ACMA's Cathy Rainsford said Optus was "manually" testing 470,000 phones on its network and that a software update would likely fix the "vast majority" of them.
"On the 14th of November, Optus said the worst-case scenario for them was approximately 470,000 devices ... that might be impacted," Ms Rainsford told senators.
"We understand the vast majority are likely able to be upgraded but Optus is working through that manually."
Samsung said devices that were more than seven years old would likely need to be replaced, but most of the phones affected could be fixed with a software upgrade.
"If your device is on the list of impacted devices, you will have 28 days from when your carrier notifies you to update the software or replace your device to stay connected," the company said in a statement.
"After this time, the device will be blocked from accessing all Australian mobile networks."
Rules require users be notified if they can't reach Triple Zero
Under rules introduced in 2024, telcos must notify their customers when their device is unable to connect to Triple Zero and then take action to block those devices from their networks.
Telcos must ensure emergency calls work even during a network outage so a customer can still connect to another telco in a crisis.
Under questioning from Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, ACMA revealed it was investigating two alleged breaches of those rules and had issued a "request for information" from Samsung and TPG.
Senator Henderson said it was an issue of "significant public safety risk" and criticised the government for failing to launch a public campaign warning Australians about the potential problems.
The apparent failure to identify the issue with the Samsung devices adds to a crisis of confidence in the emergency call system, following an Optus outage in September that has been linked to two deaths.
Australia's 20-year-old 3G network was shut down gradually between January and November 2024 to make room for 4G and 5G technology.
The telcos initially focused their attention on customers using 3G-only devices and a subset of older 4G devices that defaulted to 3G for emergency calls.
But the issue specifically with the Samsung phones on the Vodafone network was only identified in late October, months after the 3G network had been switched off.