A parliamentary committee has been told that some farmers have experienced up to a 70 percent drop in mobile service reliability following the recent shutdown of the 3G network.
This is despite promises by major telcos that their services would not be affected after the transition.
During a recent inquiry hearing, Charles Thomas, acting CEO of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF), a peak national body representing farmers and the agricultural sector, discussed the significant decline in the quality of mobile and internet services in rural and regional areas in the past few months.
“Farmers are reporting that overall service quality has diminished post-shutdown, which includes more calls dropping out, slow download speeds, or no ability to access the internet at all,” he told the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee.
The acting CEO gave the example of a family running a cattle operation in Charters Towers, Queensland, who could only make reliable calls on about 20 percent of their property in comparison to about 90 percent prior to the shutdown.
Thomas also cited the cases of livestock and cropping farmers in southern New South Wales who consistently faced dropouts in their calls despite being in a guaranteed coverage area.
In addition, he stated that the shutdown resulted in the loss of “fortuitous coverage,” or bonus coverage–areas where people can access mobile and internet services despite not being within any telco’s original coverage map.
“In some cases, entire properties that had mostly reliable coverage have now become black spots,” Thomas said.
Sean Cole, advocacy and rural affairs manager at the GrainGrowers, which represents 15,000 grain farmers in Australia, said around 90 percent of its members were affected by the shutdown.
Australia’s 3G Shutdown
Australia’s 3G network has been shut down in stages following the commercial decisions of major telcos.In late 2023, Vodafone Australia, which accounts for 17 percent of the mobile phone market, became the first telco to shut off its 3G network.
The move was followed by Optus (29 percent share) and Telstra (43 percent share), which cited the need to upgrade the speed and reliability of their 4G and 5G networks.
Poor Services Drive Farmers to Adopt Starlink
Amid the poor services caused by the shutdown, Sean said farmers were “moving in droves” to Starlink–Elon Musk’s satellite internet service.However, the manager noted that there were challenges with that approach.
“You’re actually on a waiting list for Starlink now in South East Queensland and northern North Eastern New South Wales,” he said.
Significant Impacts on Farmers’ Operation
Sean said the shutdown resulted in increased inefficiency of day-to-day farming activities that relied on mobile coverage, and affected commerce and operational matters.“Be it software in tractors, grain marketing or accounting apps, it’s clear that our grain regions post the 3G shutdown have fallen even further behind in comparison to urban areas,” he said.
“Growers feel frustrated that they pay for service they can’t access.
“Many have invested heavily in workarounds at great expense to no avail, and many are at the end of the technological road in terms of possible solutions.”
Echoing the sentiment, Thomas said farmers in NSW had to spend between $10,000 (US$6,300) and $20,000 to purchase mobile signal boosters and upgrade farm equipment to cope with the shutdown.
“Farmers have been left with no choice but to fork out for expensive boosters and antennas,” he said.
“Those who already had appropriate equipment have spent countless hours navigating complex software upgrades, and even after all of that, many are still finding very basic connectivity a challenge.”
Optus Say 3G Transition Is “Very Smooth”
Meanwhile, Harvey Wright, head of new products at Optus, told the committee that the company’s transition away from the 3G network was “very smooth.”“We’ve, throughout the process, put the customer at the centre of the transition, provided mitigation, provided awareness, [and] provided options for customers in terms of the ability to upgrade,” he said.
The manager explained that between early 2023 from April 2024, Optus had sent over 12.5 million messages and launched a national public awareness campaign to communicate with customers about the shutdown.
Furthermore, Wright said Optus had provided a range of offers, including free handsets, low-cost handsets, and a $400 device discount to help customers transition to 4G and 5G.
“Since the shutdown process commenced, Optus has provided over 25,000 free handsets to customers and millions of dollars in discounts on devices and lower-cost plans,” he said.
The manager also noted that Optus had closely monitored customer feedback during the transition and found that less than 1 percent of complaints the company had received since September 2024 were related to the shutdown.
“We’ve done all that we can to make sure that it’s as smooth a transition as possible for consumers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Justine Rowe, a Telstra executive officer, said her company had launched a dedicated 3G helpline to support customers who encountered problems during the transition.
She also added that between Oct. 28 and Dec. 20, 2024, Telstra received approximately 1,700 complaints relating to the 3G exit, less than 5 percent of the total of complaints received during that same period.
No Reduction in Mobile Coverage: Optus
At the same time, Wright said Optus was confident that there had not been any reduction in mobile coverage post-shutdown due to the company’s preparation efforts.When asked about the cases of farmers who had problems with mobile coverage, the Optus representative said network coverage was often not the source of the issue.
“Approximately three out of every four coverage complaints are not actually related to the network,” he said.
“There are other other brute causes. If we just look at some of the facts, the number of coverage complaints we have today is actually lower than we had prior to the network shutdown.”
