Optus on the road to 3G switch off, 3G 2100Mhz reused for 5G/4G network from April 2022

As part of it’s inevitable switch to a 5G/4G network Optus will commence a network technology refresh from late April 2022, reallocating 2100MHz spectrum assets to it’s faster and more advanced capability 4G and 5G networks.

After April 2022 Optus will no longer offer a dual band 3G network, instead offering 3G services via its 900MHz spectrum band only.

Optus customers with a 2100MHz-only 3G device will need to upgrade their device to have 4G LTE capability to access the Optus network, which will provide them a better customer experience than the 2100Mhz 3G network.

Customers of Optus mobile MVNO’s eg: Moose Mobile and Circles.Life with old mobile devices only using the 2100MHz network will also be affected.

Lambo Kanagaratnam, Optus Managing Director Networks said:

“Importantly we are providing 12 months’ notice to ensure affected customers are aware of our plans and have sufficient time to upgrade to newer devices that can support 4G or 5G.”

Optus will commence customer-specific communications to those impacted by the change over the coming months including contacting customers that may have very old SIM cards to assist with an upgrade of their SIM card if required. We will also ensure customers have access to the latest information on this technology refresh via the Optus website.

Mr Kanagaratnam commented on the changing nature of mobile network use:

“In the last 12 months we have really seen our customers embrace 5G technology with take up of 5G enabled devices growing significantly. It’s important that our spectrum assets are working well for customers, enabling them to truly benefit from innovative and emerging technologies on our world class networks as they move to new and more advanced 4G and 5G devices”.

“We know that our customers are using more data than ever. They’re downloading, sharing and streaming content, using apps and connecting with friends and colleagues virtually. In order to support this thirst for connectivity it’s vital that we evolve our network and redeploying our 2100MHz spectrum assets to better accommodate next generation technologies is an important step in achieving this.”

Some examples of impacted single band devices, as sourced from the GSMA IMEI database, are set out below.