Thank you #optus , but I already noticed that there was work being done when I went for a drive and saw the garbage truck trying to get through after I requested a follow up service because of the last lot of work you did without giving me notice there are things you do well, but notifying us of work being done ahead of time has not been one of them lately

The shutdown of 3G in Australia is mere days away, so I’ve updated my guide as to what’s happening and why with a few more specifics — and some issues that have emerged for some buyers of supposedly “new” phones, too…

#3G #Australia #Telstra #Optus

https://alexreviewstech.com/3g-shutdown-in-australia-whats-happening-and-why-and-what-you-need-to-do/

A #PSA for anyone living, staying, entering or even travelling to/from #Australia:

Apparently, #Australia decided to mandate it's #GSM systems to be shutdown because some #GalaxyBrainChair wanted to yeet #2G & #3G and demand everything to use #4G & #5G when in fact #VoLTE support is spotty at best and #EmergencyCalling oftentimes is explicitly hardcoded to not use #WIFIcalling or VoLTE as providing #triangulation and #LocationData via #SS7 is a desired feature when someone calls EMS, Fire Dept or the Police for help...

• So essentially #tourists and anyone who hasn't an explicitly fully VoLTE-functional device they tested and verified to also do #EmergencyCalls via VoLTE are fecked with no reception when they need it the most!

• This WILL KILL PEOPLE!!!

As much as we want to bitch about #GSM & #GPRS / #UMTS being #outdated and #inefficient, there are reasons to at least keep 2G available - ranging from lower power consumption to higher resilience in emergency situations.

• #NewZealand for example does shutdown non-#EmergencyCalls during severe #Earthquakes so that people trapped and/or in need of urgent assistance can get through to dispatch operators and everyone else has to get in line and take a number aka. use #SMS or if existing #Internet to say "I'm fine!"...

• If the Ozzies really need that juicy #UHF #SubGHz #Spectrum it's totally feasible to instead change the #allocations and reconfigure #CellularNetworks to use lesser bandwith for 2G (i.e. only keeping the absolute mininum of channels available for any service) and thus clear up space...

And to add insult to injury, Australia passed a #NorthKorea|n-alike #CellPhone #ImportBan for any device that doesn't do i.e. the bespoke proprietary garbage that i.e. #Telstra, #Vodafone and #Optus do with the #baseband modems of their #branded devices...

Seriously, which #TechIlliterate dickhead decided it's a good idea to do that #3Gshutdown in Australia without even a basic 2G network up and running at all?

• At least #Switzerland [AFAIK] still has #3G up and running (tho it would've been wiser to do it like #Germany and keep #2G as emergency fallback with it's functions like #CellBroadcast....

#Optus and #Telstra are killing #3G from October 28

Non-exhaustive list of devices soon to become likely #eWaste

(1/2)

I have bought a pump. Its job is to spray the house all over with water when a #bushfire comes. There's only so much water, so it needs to be timed right, otherwise the house will dry out before the heat arrives.

So, attached to the pump is a controller made by the thoughtful and nice Graham and Matt at Small Farm Services. (https://smallfarmservices.net.au).
I send it a 'start' over SMS and it starts. Later it sends me status messages. Marvelous.

The trouble, of course, is that #mobile #networks get turned off and/or fail during bushfires.

#Optus, #Telstra, any chance you could give me an indication of failure modes during fires? No, I didn't really think you would. <rolls eyes>. Did you know that #Optus funded a CRC into bushfires at ANU? It did/does really good stuff. (https://brcoe.org). Optus has issued press releases like this: https://www.optus.com.au/about/media-centre/media-releases/2023/11/optus-invests-to-protect-bushfire-prone-communities.
I cannot find out what MY base station's remaining vulnerabilities are, nor understand it's dependancies. Can *that one* last 20 hours without power? Can it's upstream links? Can I send an SMS over it if it is disconnected from Optus' authentication, authorisation and billing systems? What about Telstra? Coverage of both is good and I can see both towers - an advantage of living on a hill.

Without solid answers, I am looking to add some backup communications channel. I have an existing #LoRaWAN setup, and am wondering about firming it up and extending it out to very long range. The safe place I will be during the fire is about 10km away. Maybe that is the best independent path? But, maybe I should use some UHF data medium instead of LoRa? Something plainer, more commonly understood and dull?

Questions:
Anyone have resilience information for 4G SMS networks?
Should I buy a #Telstra or Optus #SIM?
Backup medium? What is the most solid thing for, say 10km?

What does The Department of #Radio Mastodon think please?

So former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was found to have acted corruptly, and now she has lost her appeal where she tried to overturn the ruling on a technicality. But, she remains employed by the Australian telco #Optus Massive ethical failing on their behalf.
#GladysBerejiklian #corruption #ICAC #auspol

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/26/gladys-berejiklian-legal-challenge-icac-serious-corrupt-conduct-finding-ntwnfb

Interesting explanation about what really went wrong with Optus last week.

The short version: it looks like Optus doesn't control its own core network. Its parent company Singapore Telecom does. Optus just resells it.

Which is why Optus' CEO was so vague about what the issue actually was: she was protecting her bosses in Singapore.

https://www.channelnews.com.au/excluseoptus-services-failure-was-on-a-netork-operated-by-singtel-claim-insiders/

#Optus #OptusOutage @technology #telco

This week's episode of Vertical Hold could really only cover one topic. @stilgherrian joins us to talk through the #Optus apocalypse; what we know about what went wrong, compensation issues, messaging and more!

#podcast #australia
https://verticalhold.com.au/2023/11/10/optus-apocalypse-what-went-wrong-vertical-hold-ep-454/

A bit of an unofficial post-mortem on #Optus #outage yesterday. I have no insider knowledge, all I can do is look at what Optus's networking gear told the rest of the world through #BGP, and make some informed guesses based on that.

The problem yesterday started at about 4am, when Optus told the world 'I no longer have any internet connectivity', and 'Do not send any internet traffic to me, at all'. The technical description is that they withdrew ALL of their routes from the #DFZ (Which is "The Internet", as seen by all the core routers that ACTUALLY control the internet).

However, as a precursor at about 3am there was a hint that things weren't perfect, as there was a flurry of changes from Optus to the outside world saying, roughly, 'Something has changed inside my network, but you can still keep sending me stuff'.

Now, as two final bits of possibly relevant information, the default for maximum-prefix on #Cisco #ASR9000 is 1048576 (this number is 'the number of routes that can be accepted by this router'), and MOST IMPORTANTLY the DFZ ("the internet") has about 980,000 routes in it at the moment. That's only 90k odd routes LESS than the default maximum.

I'd be amazed if Optus has less than 100k internal routes that aren't visible to the internet, but are visible internally.

So here's what I think happened. The at 3am, the first core #router was upgraded, and a new config was put in place. This did not join the network correctly, and things were half broken. What SHOULD have happened is that all the changes should have stopped, and either rolled back, or waited for further investigation (the cause being that more than 1mil routes were visible, causing it to shut down)

However, someone decided 'Well, maybe if we upgrade the SECOND one, that'll fix the first one' at 4am. That broke the SECOND one, and took Optus completely off the internet.

(Continued, see next for why this is far worse than it should have been)

#davidrowe @roweafr bad #cartoon: yeah day.. @FinancialReview #Optus #alttext

The #Optus story keeps on rolling -- now the timed updates are gone, replaced with a more generic outage message. This is... less than optimal. My rolling coverage is here:

https://alexreviewstech.com/optus-network-goes-down-for-mobile-and-internet-customers/