What's Happening to Non VOLTE devices with the impending 3G shutdown

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › What's Happening to Non VOLTE devices with the impending 3G shutdown

stevenn

28 posts

Geek

#319266 7-Apr-2025 13:31

The 3G shutdown is slowly creeping up on us. With the hell that went on in australia with their 3g shutdown, what will happen here?

I know there is definitely going to be a problem with emergency calling, especially on current devices that can do VOLTE for standard calls but I'm hoping NZ comes up with a better way to do it, than completely blacklisting every single device they suspect doesn't have VOLTE.

So does anyone know what will happen? Or are we going to be stuck waiting until doomsday, hoping our devices don't get blacklisted.

One idea I did have was maybe having some sort of automated text message come through everyday to devices suspected of not having VOLTE, warning them of the possible issues their devices could have like no emergency calls etc. Then if their phone does work on VOLTE and the text is wrong, they can just block the number and go about using their phone as normal.

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10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3361700 7-Apr-2025 13:38

For those devices that stop, the provider will probably just point at their small print about no parallel imports etc.

By blacklist I would assume they just 'stop' working as they don't support anything other than 3G

wellygary

8328 posts

Uber Geek

#3361703 7-Apr-2025 13:41

You are free to have a device that is not supported on a network... I doubt there will be any "black list" ...

BUT... If your device doesn't work like you think it should then that's on you... not the Network operator...

stevenn

28 posts

Geek

#3361706 7-Apr-2025 13:45

aw747:

For those devices that stop, the provider will probably just point at their small print about no parallel imports etc.

By blacklist I would assume they just 'stop' working as they don't support anything other than 3G

I was mainly meaning devices that can do VOLTE calling but aren’t officially listed as being compatible, And I was also wondering what would happen to laptops with 4g cards and hotspot devices.

Im mainly just wanting to find out if there will be any blacklisting to those devices like what happened in australia.

nztim

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TEAMnetwork

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#3361707 7-Apr-2025 13:46

The Australian Approach was an absolute shambles

Lots of people use a 4G phone that is not VoLTE for data only hotspot etc and are now blocked

I am for, any call over 3G you get a message saying your mobile wont work on X date

it should also be noted that One NZ have a 2G network which will still support voice calls post 3G shutdown

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

stevenn

28 posts

Geek

#3361710 7-Apr-2025 13:56

nztim:

it should also be noted that One NZ have a 2G network which will still support voice calls post 3G shutdown

I’m pretty sure they are shutting that down at the same time as 3G.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#3361711 7-Apr-2025 14:09

Rather than let incompatible 4G and 5G phones be relegated to data only devices, it looks like the Aussies actually actively entirely blocked them. So you couldn't even use WhatsApp etc.

https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-3g-shutdown-why-your-4g-5g-phone-is-now-blocked-5900cd5361e2

IME the Aussies relish this kind of pointless officiousness.

Linux

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#3361712 7-Apr-2025 14:09

@nztim As above I am sure the GSM / GPRS network is closing down at the same time on OneNZ

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ezbee

2405 posts

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#3361713 7-Apr-2025 14:11

There will probably be older and non tech people who having had their copper cut, decided to just use their cellphone.

It may be an older phone, but there will be plenty that say they are 4G that are not the full biscuit.
These people are not up with technical nuances.

There is going to be a lot of surprised finding out when they can't contact essential services and essential services can't contact them.
Missed medial appointment reminders, medications, follow up care calls, all sorts.

Then places that have reduced their staff as they don't expect so much in person traffic needing so much hand holding, are hit with having to explain it all and everything else.

Oh and 2FA so they are locked out of all sorts of things.

Its ok to say that typical Geekzone audience should know better, but for our most vulnerable ?

nztim

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#3361717 7-Apr-2025 14:15

Linux:

@nztim As above I am sure the GSM / GPRS network is closing down at the same time on OneNZ

You're right, both now December 2025

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

nztim

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#3361718 7-Apr-2025 14:16

tripper1000:

Rather than let incompatible 4G and 5G phones be relegated to data only devices, it looks like the Aussies actually actively entirely blocked them. So you couldn't even use WhatsApp etc.

And what a shambles that was..........

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Kraven

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3361719 7-Apr-2025 14:22

From Spark's FAQ:

https://www.spark.co.nz/help/mobile/understand/3g-network-closure/

My 4G mobile doesn’t support 4G voice (VoLTE). Will it still work?

Some mobile phones are ‘4G capable’ for data and SMS, but may not be capable of making voice calls over 4G (known as VoLTE) and instead rely on 3G for calling. This means that once the 3G network is closed, it will continue to work for data and SMS, but not for traditional mobile voice calls. So we'd highly recommend replacing it with a 4G-ready device

Linux

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#3361726 7-Apr-2025 14:35

Staged 3G shutdown across NZ would be better and do 1 LAC at a time instead of just all one night

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3361745 7-Apr-2025 15:03

IIRC part of the reason the Australians did what they did is there were some phones that supported VoLTE for normal calls but emergency calls would fall back to 3G, and fail if that was unavailable. That's a pretty major risk and one that's hard to find out ahead of time without actually calling an emergency number with 3G disabled.

It's too late now but holy f*** the VoLTE design and rollout was clearly a poorly planned shambles. We had all the APN drama a decade or two earlier to show that per network configuration was not a good idea, so what did they do? Use per network configurations and prevent setting it manually.

alasta

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#3361762 7-Apr-2025 16:05

I received an email from OneNZ last month stating that my handset might not be compatible with 4G voice. It's an iPhone 16 Pro that I bought from a OneNZ store in Wellington less than six months ago, and I have never used my SIM in anything other than a late model iPhone.

If the telcos are firing out nonsense emails like this then mass confusion is inevitable. People with limited or even intermediate technology skills are going to have no idea whether they are affected or not.

tripper1000

1617 posts

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#3361764 7-Apr-2025 16:06

SomeoneSomewhere: It's too late now but holy f*** the VoLTE design and rollout was clearly a poorly planned shambles.

LTE design was the shambles - a data-only network for tables and computers not phones.

We had all the APN drama a decade or two earlier to show that per network configuration was not a good idea, so what did they do? Use per network configurations and prevent setting it manually.

Getting off-topic, but maybe people will use generic VOIP providers in future and completely ignore the network provided voice services. More established as a world-wide standard(ish) and better for portability, features and roaming. (I guess this has already happened with SMS - people use a plethora of apps to avoid expensive MMS charges and also for better features).

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