Straight talk
What other tracking companies don't tell you
No scare tactics — just three things worth knowing before you buy any GPS tracker in Australia. Read this and you'll shop smarter, whoever you buy from.
01 · The networks
2G and 3G are gone — but the trackers are still for sale
Every GPS tracker phones home over the mobile network. In Australia, the 2G and 3G networks it might phone home over no longer exist — the carriers switched them off, for good.
That makes the cheap tracker on an overseas marketplace a trap: it powers up, the LED blinks, and it never reports a single position, because the network it speaks to was turned off years ago. The listing won't tell you. Check the network generation before you buy anything — from anyone, including us.
Shutdown dates above are from the Department of Infrastructure (infrastructure.gov.au) and the ACMA (acma.gov.au/3g-network-switch).
2G — gone by 2018
Telstra switched off 2G on 1 December 2016, Optus on 1 August 2017, and Vodafone through 2017–18.
3G — gone by late 2024
Vodafone/TPG switched off 3G on 15 December 2023 (completed January 2024); Telstra and Optus followed together on 28 October 2024.
Still on sale anyway
2G and 3G trackers were still being sold to Australian buyers on eBay AU and AliExpress when we checked in July 2026. Here, they're e-waste in a box.
02 · The right tool
Not every tracker is a vehicle tracker
A tracker built to sit on a trailer for a year is a different machine from one built to live behind a dashboard. Asset trackers trade update speed for battery life; vehicle trackers trade portability for wired-in reliability and ignition awareness. Neither is better — they're for different jobs.
The trap is the listing that sells one box for every purpose. Put a slow-reporting battery tracker in a car and you'll watch a theft unfold in two-minute-old snapshots; wire a vehicle tracker to a boat trailer with no battery and it does nothing at all.
We're a specialist provider, so we'll say it plainly: we won't sell you an asset tracker with a big battery and call it one-size-fits-all. Tell us the job, and we'll match the device — even when that's the cheaper one.
03 · The real thing
What a proper hardwired 4G tracker actually does
These four capabilities are real and standard on Australian-market hardwired 4G vehicle trackers. If a listing can't name them, you're probably looking at a repackaged personal tracker wearing a vehicle tracker's price tag.
Ignition detection
Wired to the ignition circuit, the tracker knows when the engine is on — so trips, idle time and after-hours use are facts, not guesses.
Battery-disconnect and cut alerts
Pull the tracker's power to silence it and it tells you that too — the alert fires the moment the wire is cut or the battery disconnected.
Tow detection
Movement with the ignition off means the vehicle is being moved without its key — flatbed, push or tow — and you hear about it immediately.
Remote engine immobilisation
Stop the engine from restarting, remotely — designed to engage only when the vehicle is stationary.
See the differences side by side
Wired, plug-in and battery trackers, compared spec by spec in plain language — so you can check any of this for yourself.