this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (19 children)

I don't think anyone's really suggesting we keep 3g in the metro areas. Almost the entirety of the greater Melbourne area has 4g, with a fair chunk having 5g, and I think most major cities in the country have almost complete 4g coverage.

But in the country, there's so many places I've been through, even in the last few months, where I've only had 3g/H+, that I also don't foresee them rolling out 4g to any time soon, let alone the any time this decade. 3g can travel further than 4g, and a lot further than 5g, which means it's all well and good that they've converted all of their 3g towers to also have 4g dishes, but unless they actually build new 4g towers, it's still a net downgrade.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

They are replacing 3g coverage with 4g equivalents (low frequency bands) so it shouldn't get worse. And I don't believe there is any other technical advantage to 3g over long distances but I'm no expert..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

@vividspecter @Baku

It was suggested to me that they have no intention of deploying old 3G resources to 4G. They will go straight to 5G which is why our 4G phones will no longer work.

They have been sending endless messages that I have to buy a new phone but refuse to say why.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Some 4G phones don't support 4G calling correctly or with all networks.

Check whether your phone actually uses 4G (VoLTE) for calls -- to sort-of test this, make a call while connected to mobile data and note whether the signal meter's 4G indication drops to 3G(H+/HSPA) or something during the call.

A more insidious version of this issue is that some phones do VoLTE just fine, but only use 3G for 000 calls.

Some phones only support VoLTE with some networks. There's a chance that an appropriate firmware upgrade could add support for some network/device combos.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I'll add that some Xiaomi phones need a dialer code in order to enable VoLTE support. It's only with the stock OS (custom ROMs shouldn't be affected).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Yep, this is me. Bought 1 yr vodafone prepaid, after getting reminded to enable VoLTE on my phone (a 2019 model), which I did. But, the phone doesn't actually do VoLTE calls, so come Vodafone's 3g shutdown weeks later I suddenly could no longer make or receive ANY phone calls. Internet/data works fine.

Ended up getting a cheap new phone just so I can make phone calls in an emergency.

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