Australia follows New Zealand lead to carrier block remaining Note 7 handsets

From December 15, any Note 7 handsets that are still being used in Australia will start to be blocked at the network level. The move comes a month after the Korean giant teamed up to block the Note 7 in New Zealand.

Samsung said in a statement on Thursday that a "small number" of affected handsets remained with customers, and those impacted by the change should power down their device and return it for a refund or a replacement model.

The Korean electronics behemoth and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a global recall of the smartphone in September, following 92 initial reported incidents in the United States where the batteries overheated and caught fire.

Replacement Note 7s that were said to be safe were then issued to customers, but in October their batteries began exploding and catching fire too.

The Note 7 debacle saw Samsung's mobile division report its third quarter operating profit fall by 96 percent.

The usually-dominant mobile divison's profit came in at 0.1 trillion won, a drop of 96 percent year-on-year from 2.4 trillion won, and down 98 percent compared to last quarter's 4.32 trillion won profit.

Samsung said prior to the results that the Note 7 recall would take off 2.6 trillion won in the third quarter, followed by a 2.3 to 2.7 trillion won hit in the fourth quarter, and a 1 trillion won decline in the first quarter of next year.