Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

The 3G network switchover was first announced in 2019 and will provide a more efficient use of spectrum by mobile network operators to boost capacity and data speeds. However, the government is concerned that customers in possession of particular 4G handsets may mistakenly believe their mobile device is unaffected post switchover as the handset could continue to operate normally for voice and data except when trying to call 000. The government is not satisfied that adequate efforts have been made by industry to identify and inform their impacted customers. We have therefore tasked industry to stand up a new working group to support the planned switchover from 3G to 4G in a safer way and provide fortnightly updates to government. The government takes this issue extremely seriously. We will continue to monitor the switchovers and take further action as required. We will be supporting this inquiry.