Talk:Voice over LTE

I think this article could benefit from a more descriptive title (i.e. one which reflects the incident rather than simply being called Voice over LTE), as well as a summary at the top of the page to quickly get the reader up-to-speed on the nature of the indicent. The overall amount of content and level of detail and referenceing is, however, very impressive! Keith (talk) 20:35, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

The amount of references is indeed impressive. There are a few different issues which I think should be covered and it is hard to separate them because they are so related to each other. Do you have any ideas?

1. 3G was shut down despite many devices relying on it (smart homes, IoT devices, existing phones)
2. 4G VoLTE is the only supported way to make calls now. However it has compatibility problems. The phone/telecom industry and/or goverment was made aware of these issues but chose to shut down 3G anyway
3. 4G VoLTE phones are being banned by telecom. providers from making any calls (using the phone's IMEI number) if they are deemed unable to make emergency calls.

Here are the rest of my notes on the matter.

Summary

After the shutdown of 3G in Australia, and the shift to using 4G with Voice over LTE, many 4G phones are being blocked by telecom providers from making any calls when they are deemed "unable to make emergency calls", rendering thousands of otherwise functioning devices broken.

Timeline/Thought process (could be useful as a summary to get reader up-to-speed on issue?)

1. 3G networks were shut down in Australia
2. Not all 4G phones work. only those using 4G with VoLTE
3. VoLTE has compatibility issues, and "it was well known in the industry" that this is so(See "VoLTE emergency calling"). Despite this, 3G shutdown was still enforced.
4. Thousands of 3G phones and devices broken(unable to make calls)
5. Thousands of 4G phones unable to make calls (due to lack of VoLTE spec.)
6. The 'Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment'[1] was created which requires telecommunications providers to ban specific phones(by using phone's IMEI number) from making calls if they are deemed "unable to make emergency calls"
7. This has set a bad precedent that older phones (which are otherwise perfectly functional) should be thrown out by consumers, and sends the impression that nothing can be done about this (VoLTE is a software layer/problem which *can be resolved by providing phones with software patches. Though no phone manufacturers choose to provide such a patch (Samsung, among others)
8. The IMEI ban can be lifted by telecom provider if the phone can be proven to make emergency calls but this is practically impossible due to:
   1. The IMEI being already blocked, so it is impossible to tell if the phone cannot make calls because of a hardware/software issue, or if the hardware/software is working correctly, but unable to connect due to being blocked.
   2. There is no safe and reliable way to test if a phone can make emergency calls without calling 000 and setting off a false alarm

Possible sources

• Hackaday article on the matter - https://hackaday.com/2025/11/19/why-samsung-phones-are-failing-emergency-calls-in-australia/
• Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Amendment Determination 2024 (No. 1). See https://www.acma.gov.au/ensuring-mobiles-can-reach-000-after-3g-shutdown
• James Parker's extensive article on medium: https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-3g-shutdown-why-your-4g-5g-phone-is-now-blocked-5900cd5361e2#b402
• "Australia's 3G Shutdown: Why your 4G/5G phone is now Blocked!" - https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-3g-shutdown-why-your-4g-5g-phone-is-now-blocked-5900cd5361e2

Article structure

The 3G shutdown overlaps a lot with the blocking of 4G VoLTE phones which hcannot make emergency calls so it is possible that some of the points below are already covered:

• Most headings from James Parker's article can be re-porposed into headings
• Lack of communication regarding the fact that some 4G and 5G phones would stop working as a result of 3G shutdown
• Choice to proceed with 3G shutdown despite knowing that 4G has compatibility issues and phones would not be able to make emergency calls (see https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Voice_over_LTE#VoLTE_emergency_calling)
• https://hackaday.com/2025/11/19/why-samsung-phones-are-failing-emergency-calls-in-australia/#comment-8213971 Throwing out old, tried and reliable infrastructure (2G, 3G) in favour of 'modern' untested standards (4G) is not a sustainable path for society (Probably good for an article about the issue, but not so much relevant to consumerrights.wiki)

159.196.54.60 09:46, 26 November 2025 (UTC)