ACMA calls tenders for Next G coverage audit

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 22 October 2006 18:40

IT Policy - Regulation

The ACMA has released a request for tender (RFT)  for an audit of service coverage of Telstra's CDMA and 3G WCDMA networks to ascertain if the Next G network will provide coverage equivalent to the CDMA network

In August, communications minister, Helen Coonan announced that independent national audits of the coverage of Telstra’s CDMA mobile phone network compared to its new 3GSM850 network (Next G) would be conducted by ACMA.

CDMA coverage is to be checked through mapping and field testing in what the government promised would be "a sufficient number and mix of regional, rural and urban representative areas to give a high degree of certainty to the results."

The audit will assess voice coverage of more than 80 sites, specified by the ACMA across different states and topographies - including city and regional centres - but with the focus on the less well served rural, regional and remote areas. It will cover a representative sample of sites including flat, mountainous and 'average' terrain, as well as wet rice-growing country and river flats

There will then be a second audit of coverage of the new network further into the rollout.  Only when the Government is satisfied that equivalent coverage has been provided will Telstra be permitted to shutdown its CDMA network.

Data service coverage, however, is not being audited. The expected data coverage has been the subject of some controversy with reports that the network will not deliver the bandwidth promised at the distances from the base station claimed. The reports have been refuted by Telstra and its supplier, Ericsson.

The new 3G WCDMA mobile phone network is being deployed by Telstra to replace its existing CDMA network which provides extensive coverage in rural areas of Australia.