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Telecommunications Telstra faces gov't oversight of CDMA shutdown
Telecommunications Telstra faces gov't oversight of CDMA shutdown | Telstra faces gov't oversight of CDMA shutdown |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Tuesday, 14 February 2006 | |
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It will include representatives from DCITA and ACMA and will "ensure a cooperative and coordinated approach to replicating the coverage of the existing CDMA network," Coonan said. "This is about making sure that Telstra provides Australians living in rural, regional and remote areas with adequate mobile phone coverage during the rollout of its next generation network." The group will convene for the first time this week to look at service quality and regulatory issues associated with the transition from CDMA to 3G. Specifically, it will consider: * How Telstra will replicate the quality and coverage of its CDMA network with 3G; * Details of the planned trials of the 3G network; and * The continuing role ACMA will play in evaluating the performance of the 3G network, including monitoring of quality and coverage. "Telstra has already stated that it is committed to continuing to operate the CDMA network until the new network provides 'equivalent or better coverage'," Coonan said. "This is consistent with the current licence condition obliging Telstra to maintain a digital mobile network in regional Australia on the 800 MHz band the band used for CDMA and the band Telstra intends to use for 3G. She added: "Telstra also has contractual obligations to provide mobile phone services for at least 10 years in the almost 1000 locations the Government has provided funding for." Telstra has been widely criticised for its decision to shut down the CDMA network with one of the main criticisms being that very few other carriers use the 850MHz spectrum that Telstra is planning to use and that this is likely to mean a limited choice of handsets and that these will also be costly. At last week's media briefing on its half year results Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo conceded that there were few other users, but said many carriers would like to use the frequency for CDMA. "...there are not a lot of countries or companies around the world that are in that space yet...[but] if you did a survey of companies, what I would call a blind survey so that they are not quoted ... and you ask most companies would they love to be in that spectrum space, the answer is yes...because you have a better spectrum where you can in fact penetrate buildings and walls - all those sorts of things." However he was able to name only one carrier, Cingular in the US, as having firm plans to use this frequency for a CDMA network. "There are certain other countries around the world that are ... looking at it because the spectrum is available. Sometimes in certain countries that spectrum has only been made available to military and to some other uses." Trujillo said that Telstra hoped to start deployment of the WCDMA network in the 850MHz band in late 2006 or early 2007 "assuming we can meet all the aggressive timelines, we get the suppliers to deliver everything on time that we need and we, Telstra, get all the engineering done and deployments done that we are capable of doing." He said that Telstra hoped to start shutting down the CDMA network in January 2008. "because at that point of time we feel that we will have provided, one, a better service and, two, we will have provided equal if not better coverage in the marketplace vis-a-vis or for any current CDMA customer."
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