Yep that’s the explanation I’ve heard. Telcos shifting this mess onto the consumer is pretty obviously not ideal. They shouldn’t have gone ahead with the 3G shutoff knowing these issues existed.

They could have waited 4-5 years for the majority of Aussies upgrade to a new phone that supports Telstra’s VoLTE, implemented a fallback system on Telstra’s network for phones that don’t support it, etc.

But they didn’t.

Super poor form imo. If our government were serious about protecting Australians they would do something to punish these companies. But they won’t. And our slow slide towards America-style late-stage capitalism will continue.