Australian telco TPG Telecom has confirmed a Sydney customer died last week after their mobile phone failed to connect to Triple Zero (000) during an emergency. The company said early investigations showed the person was using a Samsung handset running outdated software that was not compatible with making Triple Zero calls on TPG’s network.
TPG said it was informed of the incident on November 13 by NSW Ambulance, which confirmed the individual eventually made contact “via an alternate phone connection” and paramedics responded immediately.
According to TPG, its network was fully operational at the time, and no outages affected emergency call routing. The company said Samsung had previously identified a number of older devices that may not “correctly connect to an alternative mobile network” when the primary signal is unavailable.
TPG said it had notified affected customers to urgently update their software, adding that devices are blocked after 28–35 days if no action is taken, in line with new regulations. The most recent warnings were issued on November 7.
Samsung said it was working with carriers to ensure all devices operate reliably during emergencies. The tech giant has published a list of older models that need updates or replacements, noting that newer phones are not affected.
In September, three deaths were linked to a major Optus outage that disrupted emergency calls. Last month, Telstra found that more than 70 Samsung models had issues connecting to Triple Zero, with 11 older devices needing replacement and around 60 requiring software updates.