THE 3G APOCALYPSE
So the last day of 3G mobile phone service in Australia has begun
and this morning my mobile broadband modem is once again not
finding 4G signal. When I selected these modems I missed that
Telstra were planning to use a new 700MHz band to improve regional
coverage, which they've branded 4GX. According to this website
they're now using 850MHz for 4G as well, perhaps in a last-ditch
effort to match 3G coverage on 4G because it says "This band was
added to Telstra's network on August 4, 2024", after their first
3G-switch-off deadline (since extended twice):
https://www.frequencycheck.com/carriers/telstra-australia
I missed all that a few years ago and bought a modem (and spares)
that only supports the higher 4G frequency bands: 900MHz, 1800MHz,
2100MHz, and 2600MHz. Of those, that link states that 2100MHz "was
removed from Telstra Australia on August 4, 2024", and 900MHz
hasn't been used at all, so that leaves 1800MHz and 2600MHz, both
much higher frequencies than the 850MHz 3G band being used before.
I knew that this was going to be a problem for reception when I
picked the modems, since generally higher frequencies travel less
distance, but websites weren't updated with info on Telstra's
700MHz 4G band back then - why oh why can't Telstra just _say_ what
they're doing instead of everyone relying on 3rd party info?!
Anyway I hate the design of all the modern 4G USB modems with their
web interfaces and limited configuability. These ones still talk
good old AT commands, and they weren't designed by some suspicious
Chinese company that's probably loading them with spyware or
killswitches like modern offerings. So I still stand by my choice.
The trouble is, I needed to build an 1800MHz 4G antenna this month,
and I've run out of time for it.
It is complicated by needing to mount it on a tank stand for
line-of-sight to the tower, so I wanted to build it on top of my
backup gravity-fed water tank I've been meaning to install for a
decade in order to supply water to the house when the power's out
or the the house pump's otherwise dead. For that I've ended up with
that old bathtub I mentioned in the last post, that I'm trying to
build a platform for. Then on top of that build a 4G antenna from
an old satellite dish, which itself still needs to be pulled off
the steep roof of my father's house, based on the designs on
Whirlpool:
https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/nextg_3g_satellite_dish_antenna
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/37xqz059
Towards this, I've managed to patch up the rust spots in the old
bath with marine epoxy and bitumen paint, and build half of a base.
Pretty pathetic in a month, but I've been too focused on failing to
make money instead. I guess I should have dropped everything, but
even as things are I've got to race to finishg my tax return due at
the end of the month now. I'm just too slow. I really didn't
realise it was even this close to the deadline, I've been too
focused on finishing other things that I just _knew_ I could finish
way before this. But I didn't. It's all so frustrating.
Before yesterday and today I was getting 4G signal quite
consistently, it's just gone bad again now at the end, so maybe
I'll still have internet most of the time until I get an antenna
set up. If not, I guess I'll have to go up a hill with a laptop or
something. Hell I can drive up the mountain that the phone tower's
built on if it comes to that. But if I'm never heard from again,
you'll know it really didn't work out!
I did at least secure myself a Nokia 4G flip-phone to replace the
old Samsung model I pulled apart in for my
2022-07-06Jirka_Made_Me_Pull_my_Phone_Apart.txt post, kept in the
car for emergencies only (with an increasingly long list of
exceptions for things that you need SMS 2FA codes for now). That
was another long saga for which little of my research in
2023-06-10Facing_4G.txt turned out to be correct/useful anyway.
Really the problem here is that I just feel too tempted to say
"fuck it" and give up on it all. Frequencies/bands, carrier network
locking, VoLTE support (which doesn't support 5G, that requires
"VoNR", so the "it's a 4G phone but it still won't work without 3G"
confusion will happen all over again with 5G when 4G is turned
off). It's a minefield, especially when seeking out the few
products that are fit in my niche of cheap and minimal. I still use
a (real, copper-rotting-in-the-earth) landline for actual phone
calls and the internet keeps pissing me off by moving things behind
Javascript. Most of my computer projects are about making things on
the Web as easily accessible as they were around 10 - 20 years ago,
and I'm never getting around to most of those anyway so I just stop
using those websites as much. Internet users that moved to social
media for everything are gone to me anyway, I want no path into
that land of commercially-manipulated insanity.
All those frustrations with the internet are what I'm going to all
this trouble to provide to myself!
- The Free Thinker.
PS. I keep getting the frequencies in the first paragraphs mixed
up. This doesn't bode well - what's bet I end up building an ideal
antenna for a discontinued frequency? That's _exactly_ the sort of
mistake I keep making lately...
