Communications Minister Anika Wells has demanded answers after revelations that tens of thousands of older Samsung smartphones cannot connect to Australia’s Triple Zero emergency network — but critics say the Labor Government is ignoring a much bigger problem involving thousands of uncertified Chinese phones being sold online.

While Wells has directed the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the new Triple Zero watchdog to investigate whether Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom have breached network-sharing rules, no action has been taken against the growing number of grey-imported phones entering the country through questionable websites and distributors.

Industry insiders warn many of these devices are not certified for Australia’s 4G and 5G networks, meaning users may be unable to make emergency calls.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh described the Samsung issue as “potentially huge” and said it highlights the need for an independent investigation into Australia’s entire Triple Zero ecosystem. She also called for Samsung executives to appear before next week’s Senate inquiry into the Optus network outage.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is responsible for phone certification. Manufacturers must use accredited testing bodies, such as Certification Body Australia, to ensure compliance before applying the official Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM). However, ChannelNews has been told that tens of thousands of uncertified devices are being shipped into Australia unchecked.

ACMA has so far failed to respond to repeated calls and emails about the issue, and questions remain as to why Australian Border Force has not intervened to stop uncertified shipments.

Former TCL Mobile CEO Sam Skontos said large numbers of uncertified smartphones are already in use locally.

Hundreds of Realme devices shipped into Australia from India were not certified for the Australian network a ChannelNews investigation discovered.

“No one has confirmed that all devices affected during the Optus outage were certified,” he said. “We need far greater oversight of ACMA and the certification process.”

Back in 2019 ChannelNews published several reports questioning Realme’s certification for the Australian market, citing a refusal from the company to provide certification evidence and a case where a phone’s specifications were changed after ChannelNews raised concerns about missing 4G bands.

This has led to ongoing questions about the authenticity and certification of Realme devices, particularly those sold in Australia.

ACMA ignored our questions and failed to do anything about the issues we raised at the time.

See story here.

Last week, ACMA disclosed that older Samsung models released between 2015 and 2017 could not automatically transfer emergency calls to TPG’s Vodafone network during outages — an issue Wells said “may point to a broader systemic problem”.

By law, Telstra, Optus and TPG must ensure mobile phones on their networks can connect to Triple Zero and automatically switch to rival networks during outages. The problem has intensified scrutiny on the telcos ahead of next week’s Senate inquiry into the Optus outage, which left more than 600 Triple Zero calls unanswered in September and has been linked to three deaths.

Parliament this week passed legislation establishing a new Triple Zero “custodian” watchdog and increasing maximum fines for breaches to $30 million. However, telcos are still not required to disclose whether devices connected to their networks are certified for Australian use.

McIntosh said the government should stop allowing carriers to maintain their own outage databases, calling the current arrangement “secrecy dressed up as accountability”.

ACMA and former NBN Co director Kerry Schott, who has been hired by Optus, are conducting separate investigations into why some emergency calls on Optus’ network failed to switch to other carriers.

Owners of older Samsung phones on Optus and Telstra networks cannot connect to Triple Zero via Vodafone’s 4G network if both primary networks fail. TPG has blamed a “legacy configuration” within the affected Samsung devices.

To address ongoing concerns, the University of Technology Sydney established a National Telecom Resilience Centre in February, funded by the federal government, to test mobile devices and emergency call systems.

From November 1, new rules will require telcos to test phones every six months for network-switching capability during Triple Zero outages. Carriers must also disconnect customers within 28 to 35 days if their devices cannot connect to Triple Zero via 4G or 5G networks.