Question Time response - 3G switchover

Question - Member for Blair, the Hon Shayne Neumann MP 

Thank you, Speaker. 

My question is to the Minister for Communications. How is the Albanese Labor Government working with industry to ensure the 3G switchover is conducted with public safety at the centre?

Answer - Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP:

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Member for his question because he understands the importance of mobile connectivity, especially in the regions, and particularly when it comes to access to emergency services. 

Australians have always been early adopters and the Government supports all Australians having access to the very best services. Improvements in mobile coverage capacity and speed only arrive through innovation, the efficient use of spectrum and the rollout of successive generations of mobile technologies. From 2G to CDMA and now 3G, each of these network upgrades must be done in a safe way. 

The 3G switchover impacts devices in different ways. There are devices that rely solely on 3G, including 3G only handsets, some EFTPOS machines and some personal and medical alarms. 3G only handsets won't be able to make any calls after the switchover, and that will be apparent to end users. However, there's a subset of handsets which use 4G for voice and data, but are configured by the manufacturer to use 3G for calls to Triple Zero. 

Now, this category of handset is of concern, because it won't be apparent to end users that they can't call 000, and they'd only discover this during an emergency when they're actually trying to make the call. 

Following interrogation by my Department earlier this year, industry figures showed that up to 740,000 devices in this category may be impacted. On receiving the advice as to the scale, I immediately stood up an industry Working Group overseen by my Department that enabled fortnightly updates on device numbers and progress on community and customer outreach efforts. 

The co-operation by the working group enables me now, Mr Speaker, to advise the House that the number of devices in this high risk category has reduced from 740,000 to around 73,000. Now, that's a significant reduction, but both Government and industry believe there is more to be done. To that end, the Government welcomes the announcement by Telstra and Optus that they will delay their respective 3G network switchovers until the 28th of October. I also welcome them undertaking a joint public safety mass marketing campaign to raise consumer awareness, and I thank the CEO of Telstra, Vicki Brady, and the acting CEO of Optus, Michael Venter, for their constructive engagement with the Government on these issues. 

It's also important for users of connected devices like medical monitors, to check their compatibility by contacting their manufacturer or supplier, and I urge all customers to check if their mobile devices are impacted by simply texting the numeral three to the number 3498. 

Finally, options exist for the Government to consider regulatory intervention, including potential proposals for future delays to the switchover if they're warranted and in the public interest, and any such actions would be subject to consultation and procedural processes.