Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 18 January 2008 13:21
IT Industry -
Strategy
Page 1 of 3
Federal Australian Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has
decided that the CDMA network will now be closed on Telstra’s suggested
new date of April 28, 2008 - if Telstra can iron out the remaining Next
G and CDMA coverage issues to the Senator’s satisfaction, with both
sides claiming a win and playing nice with each other... this time.
The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today
announced that the CDMA network would now close on April 28 due to remaining concerns with coverage equivalency between the Next G and CDMA networks, while also
releasing most of ACMA’s report on the two networks to the public.
In retrospect, a delay was inevitable, despite Telstra previously declaring the two networks coverage equivalent in Oct 2007 and subsequently upgrading the coverage in more areas.
Had the new Minister for Communications decided to allow Telstra to switch the CDMA network off on January 28 as planned, it could well have been disastrous for customers reliant on equipment using inbuilt CDMA data modems who hadn’t yet upgraded to Next G equipment, customers who weren’t getting the same coverage they still do on their CDMA phone and customers who were leaving the switch to the very last minute.
If a Jan 28 decision had caused some regional Australians to be totally disconnected from a mobile network that has otherwise served them faithfully for several years, it wouldn’t be a good look for a brand new Government. Why raise the ire of citizens in a honeymoon period?
So the closure is delayed, and CDMA customers can breathe a temporary sigh of relief. There’s more time to switch, and more time to fix the remaining coverage problems and equipment availability issues.
The Minister said that he had “notified Telstra today that at this point in time I am not in a position to declare equivalence between the Next G network and the CDMA networks”.
So, what caused the Minister to make the delay? Please read onto page 2 to continue...
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