Sydney Resident Dies After Old Galaxy Phone Couldn’t Call Emergency Line [U: Statement]

UPDATE (Nov 20, 2025): Samsung has issued a statement, urging users to update their devices to avoid similar mishaps. “We strongly encourage customers to keep their mobile devices updated with the latest software, as this is critical to maintaining the highest standards of safety, security, and performance,” the official statement reads (via Android Authority). Those with an unsupported model should consider upgrading to a newer phone.

The original article, published on November 18, 2025, follows.

A tragic incident in Sydney has raised concerns about older Samsung Galaxy phones. TPG Telecom says a customer was unable to reach Australia’s 000 emergency line during a medical emergency, even though the network was working normally. The carrier says the failure came from the phone’s outdated software at a critical moment.

TPG says fatal 000 failure linked to Samsung device running unsupported software

TPG’s initial investigation indicates that the device was running an outdated version of Samsung’s software that no longer meets current emergency-calling requirements. That is the core issue and the reason TPG formally reported the incident to the Australian Securities Exchange. In short, the network was fine. The phone was not.

Samsung hasn’t issued a statement at the time of writing, but it has published a long list of affected devices on its support pages. These include older models like the Galaxy S7 series, Note 5, Galaxy A5 (2017), and several others that no longer receive software updates.

Because these Galaxy phones are past end-of-life, no patch is coming to restore their emergency-calling support. More surprisingly, Samsung also lists several still-supported models that require an urgent update to avoid similar failures. We’ve included the full list at the end of this article.

Australian carriers have reportedly been warning users about this for weeks. TPG, Telstra and Optus sent alerts in October urging customers to update or replace affected Samsung phones. Federal rules require carriers to block devices that can’t reliably make emergency calls after a grace period. About 50,000 Samsung units are expected to reach that cutoff if they remain unpatched.

These Galaxy phones can’t make Triple Zero (000) emergency calls in Australia:

• Galaxy A7 (2017)
• Galaxy A5 (2017)
• Galaxy J1 (2016)
• Galaxy J3 (2016)
• Galaxy J5 (2017)
• Galaxy Note 5
• Galaxy S6
• Galaxy S6 Edge
• Galaxy S6 Edge+
• Galaxy S7
• Galaxy S7 Edge

These Galaxy phones can make Triple Zero (000) emergency calls in Australia (with latest software):

If your phone appears in the list below, go to Settings > Software update > Download and install to check for updates

• Galaxy A series: Galaxy A31, Galaxy A32, Galaxy A42 5G, Galaxy A50, Galaxy A52, Galaxy A71, Galaxy A71 5G, Galaxy A72, Galaxy A8 (2018), Galaxy A11
  Galaxy A12, Galaxy A12s, Galaxy A20, Galaxy A21s, Galaxy A22 5G, Galaxy A30, Galaxy A32 5G, Galaxy A51, Galaxy A52 5G, Galaxy A70, Galaxy A90 5G
• Galaxy J series: Galaxy J7 Prime, Galaxy J7 Pro, Galaxy J8, Galaxy J2 Pro
• Galaxy Note series: Galaxy Note10, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy Note 10+, Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Note 20 5G, Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G
• Galaxy S series: Galaxy S20 FE, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 5G, Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 5G, Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, Galaxy S20+ 5G, Galaxy S21 5G, Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, Galaxy S21+ 5G, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+
• Galaxy XCover series: Galaxy XCover 4s, Galaxy XCover 5, Galaxy XCover Pro
• Galaxy Z series: Galaxy Fold, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Z Flip 5G, Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G