Next G now ready for CDMA shutdown, says Telstra

Stuart Corner
Monday, 15 October 2007 16:39

Business IT - Networking

In a Senate Estimates Committee hearing in May Giles Tanner, the ACMA's general manager, inputs to industry, told shadow communications minister Stephen Conroy that "The audit...is about 100 cells over a route of several thousand kilometres of the 3G network."

Under subsequent questioning from Conroy, Tanner revealed that the entire audit had been completed in just eight days and that coverage was not assessed in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia - being the three most sparsely populated states in which coverage is most likely to be marginal. Tanner was also unable to say how far the ACMA audit team had ventured into the bush from major highways.

Following those revelations, communications minister, Helen Coonan, in June, instructed the ACMA to conduct further audits of Telstra's CDMA coverage in Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and North Queensland. She did not give details as to how extensive these audits would be.