CDMA closure report in Aust Govt hands at last – now what?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 09 January 2008 16:18

Opinion and Analysis

A report on the state of Australia’s regional telecommunications has finally arrived in Federal Government hands to help it decide by January 21 whether or not it will authorise closure of the CDMA network as Telstra has planned.
Although a couple of days late, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has finally delivered its report on the state of regional telecommunications, a report that will help Federal Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy, and the Government, decide on CDMA’s closure.

This comes as Telstra seeks to convince and assure both existing CDMA customers and the Federal Government that the Next G has better coverage than the CDMA network, with Telstra reporting that customer interest in switching to Next G is ‘soaring’ with only 19 days to go before Telstra’s January 28 deadline.

Telstra Country Wide Director, Gary Goldsworthy, said that: “There's been a sudden surge in the number of enquiries we're receiving in Telstra call centres and in our Shops since the New Year, indicating that Australians know that the clock is ticking down on the old CDMA network”.

Goldsworthy continued that: "We've responded by introducing a program of travelling retail kiosks that visit communities across Australia to meet the increased demand for information and support ahead of the planned CDMA network closure on 28 January."

Goldsworthy shared the top three list of questions customers have been asking Telstra about CDMA and Next G, about Next G’s coverage compared with CDMA, which Next G phone is the best, and what the benefits were of the Next G network.

The answers were that the Next G network covers 2 million square kilometres vs. 1.6 million square kilometres for CDMA, that there are 30 different pre- and post-paid Next G models with a number specially designated as Blue Tick models which give better regional coverage, while the Next G network not only offers voice calling and SMS, but is a next generation network that offers video calling, wireless broadband and much more – on a national basis to 98.9% of the population. 

There has been speculation that the Federal Government might decide to keep some small areas of CDMA coverage turned on for some users that are still unable to receive Next G reception, while the rest of the network is turned off.

If this happened, one would imagine Telstra would quickly move to augment Next G coverage in identified marginal areas to be able to remove the CDMA network in its entirety rather than drag the full closure out longer and longer.

Still, we are dealing with a brand new Government, one that is flirting with the idea of imposing a draconian censorship regime on the Internet connection all Australians enjoy with the rest of the world, under the guise of protecting us all from child pornographers. As we can see, new Governments can sometimes be unpredictable and newly drunk on power.

So what exactly will happen on January 21 is unclear, but whatever happens, CDMA will ultimately close, as will a chapter in the telecommunications history of Australia.