A Sydney resident has died after being unable to make a triple-zero emergency call on a Samsung phone using incompatible software, according to TPG, the parent company of Vodafone.
TPG said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that the incident occurred on 13 November in Sydney. The company was informed of the death at 5.22pm yesterday after advice from NSW Ambulance. TPG stated there was no network outage, but early investigations suggest the customer's Samsung device had software incompatible with making triple-zero calls on the TPG network.
The customer was using a Lebara service, which resells mobile services on the Vodafone network. TPG, Optus and Telstra sent advisories about older devices in late October. Under current rules, customers who do not update their handsets within 28-35 days risk being blocked from the network.
TPG chief executive Iñaki Berroeta expressed condolences and urged customers with outdated software to update or replace their devices. NSW Ambulance confirmed it was contacted via an alternate phone connection after the initial failed call and responded immediately. The ambulance service has referred the incident to the telecommunications provider.
Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh criticised the federal government, stating that telcos must ensure affected customers are moved to new devices before being cut off. It is estimated that around 50,000 older Samsung devices will be blocked from mobile networks due to incompatibility with triple-zero calls.
