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Question: why are you using a device that uses the 2G network?

That's a funny story, my Samsung Galaxy S II, after years of reliable service finally met its maker, yesterday, after I fell against my desk at work during (what turned out to be) a fire drill,Don't worry I managed to, git, commit, push, before making my way out of the building.

So, the device still works but the screen is now broken.

I left work around 5:00 PM and intended to go to the store and see if I could get the device fixed, the guy at the store gave me a look of astonishment when I pulled out the old relic, "it's not worth repairing", he said, but I persuaded him to do so.

Frustratingly, the small pop-up at the mall was the only place opened, as I knock off work at 5:00 PM, and most businesses have closed up shop by then.

So, I grabbed whatever I had laying around at home which just happened to be a Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2, released in 2013, on paper it looked newer than the S2, but in all seriousness, I just needed something to get me through the week, now why was this handset abandoned and sitting in a draw? - it was only three years old at this point.

Well Telstra, in their infinite wisdom, probably as more of a strategic business move, towards the end of last year (2016), decided it would be of the up-most convenience to their customers to shut down the 2G network. - I didn't notice at the time, as when I pulled the back of the phone off, it had x2 3G SIM cards in it, hence the name duos.

Funny enough my iPhone colleagues at work were quick to tell me how the iPhone has excellent 3G compatibility, I mean so did, my S2 but that's now broken, never argue with the fanboys!

Fortunately, we got Wi-Fi at work, so for the last few days it's acted more as a watch calendar and just about every other item other than a mobile phone.

But I discovered that I can still send and receive text messages on my drive home from work using this 2G handset, meaning that there is still minor 2G network coverage in my area.

To be explicit, I am not using the handset while driving,

I'd send the message while I was at home or work and then driving past the CBD releases the messages, kinda the same way sending email without a network connection works, the application just queues it, and then releases it when a connection is available. 😛

Update 1:

It is frustrating the number of businesses that close at 5:00 PM or shortly after I leave work, and with at least a 15-minute drive ahead of me, it made sorting out a new handset very difficult - it's almost like they don't want my business, and instead I'll go online and buy my crap from overseas.

I have now gotten a replacement phone, I had intended to buy from a local Harvey Norman store, but they closed right on 5:00 PM, even after phoning ahead so I haven't been able to transfer my sim over just yet, (the new phone uses a smaller form factor for the SIM card), so I am still without an active service, I bought my phone from OfficeJerks, but they don't do sim transfer, but at least they were opened and helpful.

I bought an S8+ because memes.

I wanna tell you the funniest thing about the phone call with the guy from Harvey Norman, I was sitting at the traffic lights literally no more then 30-metres away from the store's car park, and I could see him answering the phone from the window while the lights were red (I had my brother with me making the call), and he sounded so calm and casual, like yeah, I'll sell you a $1000 phone, I just need to stay open a little bit longer, (even if it was just for me, like I would have wandered in through the back if necessary) but then right as I pulled my car up to the parking lot I saw him take the sign from open to close and then just shake his head, it's a great customer experience that I'll never forget! - if he just said no, I would have kept on trotting along to Officeworks.

Update 2:

The sim transfer process was awful, for reference I was going from a Standard SIM to Nano SIM, apparently I could have just taken a pair of scissors to it, but I didn't want to risk it, plus my current sim was a little bit dodgy, I was on the phone to a local Telstra shop, and after explaining to them that it would take me about half an hour to get out to them, (I didn't explicitly tell them that I had to give up my lunch break, but it seems like I have to take a day off work to sort it out, they're not open on the weekends so fuck me I guess), I need to get a new SIM from somewhere, and my boss gave me that look of annoyance when he realised how long it was taking me to sort out a simple SIM swap, so he took out a box of them from his draw, and threw one at me (you can provision your own SIM card in an enterprise environment).

So on the phone to Telstra for probably a full hour, so I lost my lunch break that day, but at least my boss was kind to let me see it through, kudos to him, and the lady on the phone from national Telstra was very concerned that I'd managed to obtain a SIM card from somewhere, but I just want the dam thing to work, lol, everything is now working and life has gone back to normal.

Update 3:

Authenticators, specifically text message-based authenticators, the last point I wanted to make was just how difficult life was without a text message-based authentication, the one time I didn't have my phone working was the one time I got my bank password wrong, sure enough it needed a text message to allow me to reset it, at least in this case I could SIM swap, but I'd hate to think how the process would work if the authenticator was app based, and I no longer had access to my phone.