Telstra is finally planning to switch off its ageing 2G mobile network just one week from today, on December 1.

The network was launched in April 1993, with help from Ericsson and Alcatel as launch partners and a huge team from around Telstra working furiously to transition users from analogue to the digital network, Steve Tinker – Telstra Country Wide area manager for eastern Victoria – recalled in a blog this week.

“It was a time when making a phone call was a novel experience. (But) three years after launch we had 2G mobile network coverage of 91pc of Australia’s population,” he recalls

“Since then, Australians have made around 87 billion phone calls and sent billions more text messages on the 2G network.”

But now it’s all but over. Telstra has spent two and a half years persuading 2G customers to upgrade – from next Thursday those who haven’t done so will no longer be able to make or receive phone calls or use data.