Payments

Australian vending machines breaking down as result of 3G shutdown

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May 24, 2024

Vending machines and other unattended retail sites are now being impacted by Australia's shutdown of the 3G network, according to a Daily Mail report.

Major phone companies in Australia have slowly been shifting away from 3G, causing many vending machines that are connected to 3G to fail to process digital card payments.

"The thing is people come up to a vending machine or another unattended retail space and they don't actually know that that's the issue and the equipment is not supported properly," Robbie Allison, Quality Vend founder and managing director, told the news outlet. "It's a massive cost to us. I know I'm already down 5 to 10% on sales than this time last year because of these outages."

Vodafone, a major telecommunication company in Australia, switched off its 3G last December. Telstra and Optus, two other major telcos, are set to end their 3G service later this year.