Imagine you’re on a far-flung farm and you have been gored by a bull or pinned under your tractor.

You reach for your trusty old mobile phone, hit the emergency 000 code … and you’re greeted by silence.

That’s the prospect potentially facing tens or hundreds of thousands of country Australians – no one quite knows the actual number – if things don’t improve remarkably by the time the phone networks switch off the last of their 3G services in October.

What will happen to emergency call access in country areas when the 3G network is switched off?Credit: Josh Robenstone

In a nation of 27 million, hundreds of thousands may not sound much of a number. Out in country Australia, however, where a local town’s population might be less than a thousand, or a remote district can muster no more than a handful, it’s plenty significant enough.

Australia’s telecommunications networks argue that they need to switch off 3G to “repurpose” its spectrum to make 4G and their shiny new 5G networks work better. Few, it was assumed, would have a problem with that, least of all Australia’s city dwellers, who have been using 4G or 5G for quite some time now.

But in the great Australian distances, clunky old 3G has long been a lifesaver. Literally.

Even if your mobile phone has rotten reception, the 3G system still connects to emergency services. You’ve probably........

© Brisbane Times