JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Communications
Shadow Minister for Women
Federal Member for Lindsay

Dr Anne Webster MP
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications
Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
Federal Member for Mallee

Aaron Violi MP
Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications
Chief Opposition Whip
Federal Member for Casey

28 October 2025

On 3G shutdown anniversary, Labor must fix serious and persistent emergency and connectivity faults

Today marks one year since the disastrous 3G shutdown, which still leaves countless numbers of Australians stranded without emergency call coverage.

On this grim anniversary, the Albanese Labor Government still has no answers and no fixes for the chaos it caused. Instead of protecting Australians, Labor undermined confidence in our telecommunications system by pressing ahead with a rushed and premature shutdown, ignoring repeated warnings about the risk to Triple Zero connectivity.

Shadow Minister for Communications, Melissa McIntosh MP said, “for over a year now, and well before the Government’s forced and premature 3G shutdown, the Coalition has been warning the Albanese Labor Government that regional Triple Zero connectivity would be threatened by the network’s closure.

“Putting Australians first should be the number one priority of any government. The on-going 3G network shutdown issues plaguing regional Australians’ must be fixed. The Albanese Labor Government rushed the network shutdown and put the safety of the public at risk.”

Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, Dr Anne Webster MP said, “the Prime Minister’s campaign slogan is ‘nobody held back, nobody left behind’, but Australians have been catastrophically left behind by this Government, unable to connect on emergency calls and left with poorer connectivity after the 3G shutdown.”

“The Labor Government bungled the 3G network closure without all the checks and balances in place. The Communications Minister had power to delay the shutdown until she was absolutely certain no negative emergency connectivity issues would arise, and yet here we are with countless Australians lacking connectivity. We have no clear picture of how the shutdown impacted coverage with the National Audit of Mobile Coverage not concluding until 2027.”

“The Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport inquiry heard evidence into the 3G shutdown and recommended, prior to the 28 October 2024 shutdown, that the Albanese Government delay the shutdown until “the 4G network provides coverage equivalent to or better than the coverage provided by the licensee's 3G network”.  

Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications, Mr Aaron Violi MP, said “why has it taken 12 months to discover that thousands of Australians are unable to make a potentially lifesaving phone call, all because this Labor Government’s 3G shutdown has not gone to plan?”

In its response to the interim report the Albanese Government said:

Telstra has committed to ensuring 3G-only areas within its published coverage area will have equivalent 4G coverage prior to its 3G network switchover, and has informed the Government that it is undertaking independent testing in impacted areas to confirm there will be no loss of coverage.

Optus has also indicated that there will be no loss of coverage following its 3G switchover and that it will continue to operate a small number of sites in regional areas while upgrades are carried out in order to meet this commitment.

Evidence given to the inquiry after 28 October 2024, and anecdotal evidence since, demonstrates connectivity is poorer, consumer confidence is lower, and some customers remain unacceptably at risk of not being able to access Triple Zero on certain devices.