Come on Telstra fess up on CDMA numbers

Stuart Corner
Monday, 05 November 2007 09:37

Opinion and Analysis

So why is such hard work if as Telstra now claims the coverage is better? After all the range of functions and features on the new handsets is much greater than the old CDMA, there are all the other benefits like Mobile Foxtel, high speed broadband, etc.

Maybe it is all about handsets. The old CDMA handsets often had pull out aerials and perhaps generally had better RF performance than their Next G counterparts. Telstra, rather belatedly to my mind, acknowledged the reality of variable RF performance when it introduced the 'blue tick' in about June to indicate handsets with better RF performance.

It has now gone one step further with the Telstra 165, which has a good old fashioned pull out aerial and has been developed specifically to have optimal RF performance. Anecdotes from one Telstra rural area manager, relayed by Booth suggest that it might be what Telstra needs to get those last customers off CDMA.

"A customer complained to a federal member that the Next G was no good at Condamine. The customer was 36 kilometres from the town. I made phone calls and watched Foxtel on a verandah with the 165....Another farmer [said] CDMA is no good. Therefore, Next G will also be no good. I drove around the farm with the farm manager, watching Foxtel and making calls on the handheld 165, in areas where they had difficulty with the CDMA outside a vehicle."