A disconnect with the bush

The 3G switch-off is designed to free up radio frequency spectrum for service providers to expand their 4G and 5G services.

Already struggling with poor or no mobile service, for farmers the 3G shut off is just a further widening of the disparity between the big city and those in the bush.

The switch-offs will not only impact 3G devices, but some 4G devices are also likely to be affected, leaving farmers in limbo about what will and what won't work.

Heath McWhirter has an agronomy consulting business, Summit Ag, in Griffith, with a travel radius of about 200 kilometres in each direction.

Mr McWhirter believes the network has deteriorated so much in the past 12 months in particular that even in places where you can get 3G, that there's no data bandwidth on it.

"You can't do anything on an iPad on Agworld, which is the app that we use to get farm records, or load web pages or emails," he said.

"One way this affects us is in terms of trying to find data while we're on the go.

"There's some moisture probe work done across all the clients that we have in all the irrigated crops.

"The lack of service reduces our ability to access that data. You can't be in a field, pull up the moisture probe, see what water deficit you've got, and go through that.

"Probably an even bigger impact is that every day when we manage these crops, we use NDVI mapping so you can see where the high biomass is, the low biomass, the medium, and then you can do your field inspections and make decisions around that.

"We have had to revert back to the way it used to be. You drive around fields and you stand up on the back of the ute and try and look across it to see where the high biomass is and where it's not. The service has gone backwards."

Mr McWhirter said his irrigator clients using metering equipment working on the 3G network are going to have significant issues.

"That meter is no longer going to work and I've had examples where people have had trough watering or actuators on irrigation gates which will no longer work.

"People in horticulture are talking to me around where a lot of the technology they rely on to make them efficient because labour is so hard to get, they're all going to shut down and it's just another cost on their business to go and upgrade data loggers from 3G to 4G, or even modems that are on farms.

"There's been plenty of government push for farmers to get into the Internet of Things to be more efficient and if they've bought hardware that's 3G, it has just been a waste of time and money."

Federal Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said the Government was backing farmers and primary producers.

"Farmers and other business owners should look to upgrade their devices ahead of the planned shutdown, including through the Government's $30 million On Farm Connectivity Program," she said.

"The program is providing rebates of up to 50 per cent for eligible equipment, up to $30,000, to upgrade or modernise equipment, including supporting the transition from 3G."

Regional general manager for Telstra in NSW, Chris Taylor, said the aim for Telstra giving almost five years notice was it didn't want people to have to rush to make changes, but also didn't want them buying any new devices that weren't going to be operational after the shut-off.

"When 3G launched in 2003 we used our mobile devices for calls, texting and accessing basic information online. Today, demand for mobile data is growing by around 30 per cent each year," Mr Taylor said.

"As customers increasingly move from 3G to take up the benefits of newer technology, we have seen a significant decline in 3G usage across our national network with 3G accounting for just 1pc of our total mobile network traffic.

"In terms of national regional coverage, Telstra has the biggest mobile network of all providers. More than 98pc of our mobile sites already have 4G installed.

"Looking at online coverage maps, by June 30 Telstra has committed to providing equivalent 4G coverage in places where there is currently only 3G coverage."