Australia investigates a death after an outdated Samsung phone couldn't reach 000 amid Vodafone's 3G shutdown. See affected models, updates, and safety advice.
© A. Krivonosov
In Australia, an investigation is underway into a fatal incident in which a Sydney resident died after being unable to reach emergency services from an outdated Samsung smartphone. According to Lebara, which operates on Vodafone’s network, the handset was among several dozen Samsung models considered incompatible with reliably placing calls to 000.
TPG Telecom, the owner of the Lebara brand, said the incident occurred on 13 November and that no outages were recorded on its network at the time. The call, it noted, was not rerouted because the phone was running old software that could not automatically switch to another carrier’s available network — a capability required for emergency calls. Australian operators and Samsung confirmed that assessment.
The situation was exacerbated by Vodafone’s shutdown of its 3G network in Australia. Some older Samsung models attempted to fall back to 3G when dialing 000, causing the connection to drop. Telstra published a list of Samsung devices that need a software update, as well as 11 models that cannot be fixed with a patch and were recommended for replacement. The list includes: Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy J1 (2016), Galaxy J3 (2016), Galaxy J5 (2017), Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge. It’s a stark example of how legacy software and sunset networks can collide with life-or-death consequences.
Samsung said owners of older smartphones should update their software immediately to avoid similar risks. The company is also working with carriers and the regulator ACMA, which is conducting an independent review of compliance with rules for testing phones’ compatibility with the emergency service.