98,000 Samsung Phones still need a software update to be able to make Triple Zero calls

In the wake of the Optus network issue which led to hundreds of failed Triple Zero calls, and the subsequent issues which have been reported on the TPG Network, which also includes at least one, but now likely two fatalities linked to customers who had failed to call Triple Zero due to device or network issues – the magnifying glass is on the entire mobile industry with several stakeholders appearing in front of a Senate committee today.

What seems clear, to me at least as a casual observer of these hearings, is that we need a new focus on the industry working together, collaborating, and sharing information – something, many things, have gone wrong many times to lead us to this point.

For example, Samsung’s head of mobile in Australia, Eric Chou, detailed that the 71 Samsung devices named in recent months by the telcos as being not entirely capable of connecting to Triple Zero in all network circumstances (namely, if there’s no Telstra or Optus, they can’t use the TPG/Vodafone network), those 71 device model names and details were provided to the telcos as early as July 2021. Three years before the 3G network shut down.

How Telstra, Optus, and TPG failed to then identify those as devices needing to be blocked on our networks is really the key area of concern right now.

Staggeringly, Mr Chou was also able to share details of just how many “phones” that was. With 71 models, many of them flagship models from over the years, it turns out that there are 1.7 million phones caught up in this.

Fortunately, 1.6 million had successfully received a software update which solved the connectivity issues.

But, that leaves 98,000 phones sitting on the wrong software, and as a ticking time bomb at the worst possible time for their users.

60,000 of those phones are on the Telstra Network, 28,000 on the Optus network, and 10,000 on the TPG/Vodafone network.

A lot of attention from Senators came on Samsung for not communicating with customers about this, but in fact, these users are not (for the most part) actually Samsung customers. They bought their phones through retailers or telcos.

While Samsung can and does issue a notification about software updates, people can and often do choose to ignore that. According to those numbers shared, around 6% of people don’t seem to undertake software updates – at all.

Rightly, the Senators felt someone should be notifying customers, but Samsung doesn’t have customer details – they can’t send SMS messages or letters. So why didn’t the telcos?

I suspect there will be clarity on much of this over the months ahead, and while there’s a focus on Samsung, it must be clear that there was also a lot of consensus that this was because of Samsung’s market power but that there are many other brands and many, many more devices that could well be affected.

The problem of grey imports into Australia which are unregulated and likely don’t meet our local standards was also discussed, as was the issue of meeting standards on a particular date, but perhaps that compliance might lapse when networks change.

In simple terms though, what I learned today is that we need to encourage our friends and family members to do software updates. Not just for fancy new features, but because their phone might simply not work correctly if you don’t.