Defective phones that cannot reach emergency services have been connected to another death, heaping more pressure on the under-fire telecommunications sector.
TPG Telecom chief executive Iñaki Berroeta on Tuesday said his company had discovered another customer who had been unable to call triple zero because their phone was not compatible with the 4G emergency calling network.
The person reached emergency services five minutes later on September 24 via alternative means but the customer is believed to have subsequently died, Mr Berroeta told a Senate inquiry.
The executive said he learned of the suspected death on Monday.
“We knew about the device not being able to make a call at that time, we investigated that device, including getting in contact with that device, but we did not know that there might be a person passed away,” Mr Berroeta told the Senate.
The person lived in Wentworth Falls in the NSW Blue Mountains, though TPG had not yet confirmed the incident with emergency services and could not provide any further details.
It is the second death linked to TPG, which also operates the Vodafone and Lebara brands in Australia, after a customer failed to reach triple-zero on November 13.
The telco industry has faced immense scrutiny since three people died and hundreds of triple-zero callers were unable to reach emergency services during an Optus outage in September.
Early investigations into TPG’s November incident point to the customer’s ageing Samsung phone using software incompatible with making triple-zero calls.
“Even though it was a 4G device, when an emergency call was placed, they would go into the 3G technology at the time, where 3G networks were not going to be available,” Mr Berroeta said.
TPG claims it made regulators aware of the problem at the end of 2023 before the national 3G network shutdown.
Under Australian laws, telcos are required to block devices if they are unable to call triple zero.
Around 18,000 TPG customers still have phones that cannot access triple zero because they require a software update or an entirely new device, Mr Berroeta said.
“These devices will be progressively blocked in the coming weeks, if no action is taken.”
Samsung has identified 11 phones needing replacement and another 60 requiring a software update to overcome the 3G network issue.
Anyone who has not done so within five weeks of receiving notice from their telco will have their handset blocked.
The Samsung-specific issue with the Vodafone network was discovered by Telstra and Optus in late October, a year after the two telcos turned off 3G.
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
