Worse off after the 3G shutdown?

Electronics & Technology
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Hi all - have you been having issues with your mobile phone service since the 3G shutdown?

3G was turned off in Australia at the end of October last year, with the promise that the move would allow more people to access faster connections.

But over the last month, there have been reports that phone reception for some people, especially in regional areas, has become worse since the shutdown.

Some of those affected have reportedly lost the ability to make phone calls completely and been told to spend their own money on antennas if they want better service.

I know some Community contributors have already been discussing this issue in recent weeks, but I wanted to do a fresh callout to see if any members still feel their mobile reception is worse off after the 3G shutdown? Thanks!

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No mobile phone no services!
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I do quite a lot of long distance bicycle rides in rural NSW and although I have not had to make a phone call when in poor 4G reception (where it might prviously drop back to 3G) areas since last October, I have noticed more signal drop outs when riding.

My Garmin bike computer is connected to my phone (about 10cm away) via Bluetooth and I have noticed more ‘phone connection lost’ messages appearing than previously. It hasn’t been a problem so far, but if I happened to crash in one of the now more common ‘no signal’ areas, then my wife would not get the crash notification triggered by the G sensor in the bike computer.

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I’vebeen using VoWiFi for as long as it has been available to me. Whilst 3G existed, thats what my calls ended up using
 now that it isnt there, its 4G or nothing. So my internet went down in the midst of a call 
 call died
 I tried on 4G and it was just horrendous, would not stay connected. We gave up in the end. And I am in a Newcastle outer suburb on the Telstra wholesale network, with Woolies (Everyday Mobile). You’d think that Telstra would make an effort. I doubt that I’ll ever get 5G here.

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Where we are located, no 5G exists. We are surrounded by 5G coverage but we remain a 5G desert :cactus: n a Greater Brisbane suburban area.

4G can be spotty as well, while 3G existed we would fall back to 3G when the 4G signal was too poor. We are on the Telstra Wholesale network via ALDImobile, though even if we were on the full network we would not get 5G here. It seems like a lot more work needs doing to improve things after the 3G shutdown.

Telstra Full network 4G

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Full network 5G

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Wholesale network 4G

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Wholesale 5G

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Prettymuch the same as me. The whole of Hexham Swamp gets 5G coverage but there are patches of Maryland which do not. Hills. They could make the effort and put in a few small cells.

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There are areas of Canberra that don’t have 5G coverage, including spots quite close to the inner city area. On the highways to both Melbourne and Sydney we’ve noticed areas that have only 4G, and that used to sometimes drop to 3G, now nothing. If they can’t get it right in city and suburban areas, what hope is there for the rural areas? We really feel for those people.

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Everyday Mobile is NOT the full Telstra network. Only Telstra itself & Boost get the full network. So maybe you can;t. blame Telstra for that one.

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Yes, our reception is worse than before. We live about 110km north of Perth and had a 3G Telstra mobile antenna before. On Telstra advice we replaced it with a 4g Telstra mobile antenna at a cost of $1,000 only to find that the reception did not improve much. We can still make calls but when we move away from the repeater i.e. into another room we are on wifi calling only. For $150 I bought an additional outside antenna and plugged it into the Telstra indoor antenna but unfortunatly without a marked improvement. 3G was better, that’s for sure.

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Yes I can. The Telstra Network in this area has 5G to much of the surrounds. Just not this side of the hill. 4G is just as patchy. I had Boost for a couple of years and it was still dropping to 3G. I confess I have not had them since then, perhaps a trial when my 12 months of Woolies runs out. (They keep removing the perks which were associated)

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It’s the same here when we drive north from Lancelin/WA along the Indian Ocean Drive. There were a few dropouts in 3G times but now there are roughly double the amount of drop out zones with 4G.

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Not quite the 3G discussion but I would agree with Desperado, We are in a black-spot in Sydney and I have switched to Boost from Vaya for our mobiles & use Telstra for Broadband/Wi-Fi and now can use our mobiles without a hitch where as before we had to have a landline and it was still better than what we have today. I personally think we’ve all been conned.

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Yep, our neighbours complained to Telstra and were told to find another supplier if they didn’t like it. I put in a complaint - in writing because my phone reception is so bad it keeps cutting out and they couldn’t hear me.

I was told to put up an antenna. A bit strange because they said the reception was fine, if the reception is fine why would I need an antenna?

The neighbour is thinking of getting Starlink because their internet is rubbish - but they can’t stand the thought of having any connection to Elon Musk’s business.

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Assume the complaint was about the service quality being less with 4G than previously 3G? Telstra and the other 2 network providers all qualify their coverage. We have always had issues with mobile coverage where we live. Mixed rural, forestry and scattered residential acreages. Our region has seen some improvement through support of the local Federal Member. YMMV depending on the direction of the policy winds on the day. Traction in my experience improves when it’s not just one complaining. Doubtless why the OP in this topic was asking for consumers to share their experiences of worse performance with 4G following the 3G switch off.

Telstra on outdoor coverage say:

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And when it comes to indoors - point to the possible but not assured benefits of a repeater.

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Internet - Broadband services are covered in other topics.
EG (or just use the search tool at near the top RHS of this web page to search on StarLink)

To note the solutions offered by the NBN depend on where one is located. The availability and performance of Broadband (internet) using one of the mobile networks also depends on where one is located. Our personal experience is broadband over the mobile networks when home is useful but not as effective as our current NBN Fixed Wireless service. As it is for our marginal mobile phone services at home so to for the Broadband Mobile network. The modem needs to be moved to a particular window to provide a reliable connection.

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Thank you for the info Mark.

The problem started with their “upgrade”. The reception is better if I go out to the lawn (while balancing on a walking stick).

They assured me that the reception was fine (in writing because my reception is not good enough for phone calls) but said I should get an antenna. I get maybe one bar or just SOS. In town I get 5 bars!

I wouldn’t know what sort of antenna I could get - or how to install it. The Telstra letter was very curt.

Aldi were very helpful, so thumbs up for them. I pay $15 a month for mobile. Telstra supply internet for $89 using their copper.

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An antenna that supports the Telstra 4G network is what they must be suggesting as it is a Telstra service. ALDIMOBILE are using the Telstra Wholesale network. Repeaters for the Telstra network are around $1,000, if they are instead suggesting a repeater.

An antenna will require a connection to your mobile device or to your router if the router is using the mobile network. A repeater may also use an antenna to increase signal strength gain, a repeater does not need to be attached to the phone that is benefiting from the signal boost.

If the Telstra Internet is by copper connection, this is owned by NBN Co not Telstra.

If you wish to complain about your mobile reception, you should first complain to your provider, in your case ALDImobile. Telstra are not your provider and you are not their customer, they supply a service to ALDImobile who then supply a service to you. That Telstra replied to you at least indicates they have some level of interest in you getting some improvement, even if the answer you received was quite simple and perhaps’’curt’.

Under the Mobile Blackspot program, Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone/TPG can apply for Federal funding to increase their network in areas where reception is poor or nonexistent. Complaining to your provider who is a MVNO (so not an owner of any network) and asking them to look into submitting a request to their provider for improvement using the Blackspot program would be a good step in trying to get the longer term problems addressed. Also contacting you local Federal House of Representatives member and your State/Territory Senators is another good step. Have your neighbours also make the same approaches, the more contacts made means that the major Telcos get more feedback to encourage them to apply for funding in your area.

Shorter term, a Booster plus an antenna, should improve your “in home” coverage. Buildings, landscape, and foliage block signals, unimpeded line of sight to a tower will give the best reception, any impediments will decrease or obliterate signals and so either poorer or no reception is possible.

Telstra provide a unit that may help but it will cost you and needs an assessment by Telstra (also probably at a cost to you).

Examples of 4G antennas (not a recommendation of the businesses or the products, just for information).

https://rfshop.com.au/product-category/antennas/4g-5g-ready/

All of these need a device that is able to connect to the antenna, most mobile phones these days do not have connectors for external antennas. Often then what it needs is a booster/repeater that connects to that external or in the home antenna (best antenna is external). The only approved option in Australia is a CEL-FI product, Telstra rebadge them when they supply them but you can buy the products without using Telstra, Optus, or Vodafone/TPG but they do need to be approved/licensed for the network you are using them on.

Some examples of packages (not a recommendation of the business, provided purely as examples for selection and cost).

The cost even if purchased via Telstra is expensive.

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There has been suspicions that Telstra deprioritises MVNOs which use the Telstra wholesale network. This was confirmed about 20 years ago, but raises its head from time to time (and never proven or acknowledged by Telstra).

Deprioritises means priority of connection is given to Telstra retail network users, over those which use the Telstra wholesale network. There are anecdotal reports that in some areas, Testra retail network users have network connection, whereas Telstra wholesale network users don’t (even though coverage is technically available to both). This anecdotal evidence is often in peak times or areas where there are high number of connections.

If deprioritising occurs and one uses a MVNOs in a deprioritised area, an antenna or changing to another MVNOs won’t have any effect on improving coverage.

Another known (rather than anecdotal) factor is ability of a mobile to connect to a network. This can impact on connectivity even if the phone shows connectivity through ‘bars’ showing. If one has a phone where connection is known to be problematic, possibly explore an alternative:

Telstra outline the criteria they use to determine what phones have Blue Ticks here:

https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/telstra-blue-tick--how-we-test-for-regional-australia

It is based on real testing of mobiles. Blue tick phones won’t benefit most unless one is close to the limits of network coverage and a replacement phone is known to operate better than an existing phone one has. It will also have no effect if one is in a blackspot area (viz. no network coverage).

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For which phones can best handle weak signals, see if your fav phone is reviewed on Cybershack. As I often post Cybershack does not have a favourable view of Telstra’s Blue Tick program that they once called a marketing exercise to sell their phones rather than necessarily good fringe area phones.

There are multiple installments to this.

Re Canstar, readers should delve into the criteria for 'canstars’. It is a different approach than Choice or Cybershack’s technical or use evaluations. (I could not link their approach to their ‘review’ other than the review seems a collation of marketing claims.)

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Here is another area of concern , the 4G signal and the Digital TV signal are almost overlapping and if you get pixellation on your TV that is because of 4G interference
Now you can put in filters and update your aerial but because more usage now exists on the 4G network you can still get interference
Answer contact ACMA and they explain it all on their website but when you ask for help they want you to expend money on getting all the information on your aerial and filter setup even though they acknowledge this problem on their website
Sorry to do a partial hi-jack but those that are experiencing 4G interference will at least know help is only a mirage

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It’s noticeably deteriorated as we have 4G only in my area and 5G won’t arrive any time soon. When notifying Telcos about less effective service they often suggest a new 5G plan that ‘Will use 4G in the meantime’ or that the phone settings are incorrect. They’re not taking the issue seriously.

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Every increase in “G” is an increase in carrier frequency, which means faster data transfer rates, but also means proportionally shorter range (thus requiring many more transceiver towers).

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