Anger remains over Telstra’s impending CDMA closure

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 26 April 2008 15:41

Opinion and Analysis

There have been many commenters to a News.com.au Herald Sun story, a couple of which caught my eye.

One was from a reader called “Techo”, who cleverly noted that: “Regardless of what you might think right now, come Tuesday NextG coverage will definitely be better than CDMA.”

Unashamed Telstra fan “Sydney Lawrence of Manly” and regular commenter at a range of sites wherever Telstra is mentioned for virtually any reason, also chimed in with his usual pro-Telstra commentary, noting that: “Why would Optus plan to build a system that will obviously be inferior to the Telstra Next G. Australians demand the best and they will most likely reject the Optus roll-out.”

Of course, Lawrence conveniently forgets that the Optus and Vodafone HSDPA 3.5G rollouts are one of the best things that can happen to the Next G network, as they will force Telstra to not only do a better job with its Next G network, offering faster speeds and a much greater range, but also to drop prices in order to better compete.

After all, it’s most likely only customers on the very edges of the Next G network that are truly having problems with Next G coverage – customers in major rural and regional centres would be well served by Next G towers.

Those populated regional areas are prime targets for Optus and Vodafone, where their price competition and superior data bandwidth pricing will prove very challenging to existing Next G pricing.

This will force Telstra to become a lot more competitive with lower pricing and better data bandwidth deals, ultimately resulting in many, many more satisfied Telstra customers, assured of better rural and regional coverage and faster speeds.

Were Optus and Vodafone not to build out in the bush, Telstra would have far less competitive pressure to do the right thing by its customer base.

Telstra is also advising anyone with an old CDMA phone – or indeed any old mobile phone – to hand it into their closest Telstra store or dealership so that it can be safely recycled.

However as I have advised in an article called “Don’t recycle your CDMA phone at a Telstra store!”, why recycle your phone with Telstra, when the Mobile Muster program, of which Telstra is a sponsor (amongst many other telecommunications companies) is offering to help schools that collect phones for recycling with valuable educational resources?

In addition, the Mobile Muster program has done a deal with Landcare, where the environmental organisation will plant up a tree for every mobile phone handed into a school for a total of up to 100,000 trees?

Before we close, it's also ironic to note that rural and regional Australians were similarly angry when the analogue AMPS mobile network was closed, with the CDMA network touted as its replacement, with CDMA users at first complaining just how bad it was compared to the paradise that was analogue coverage.

Of course, Telstra massively improved CDMA coverage over the years, and one can only imagine the exact same thing will happen with Next G - although today, the Next G network already offers broadband data speeds, video calling, mobile television and information services and plenty more the CDMA network could only ever dream of offering anyone, ever.

As the years go by, and technology changes and matures, change is sadly - and happily - inevitable.

So, the CDMA network is closing, but it certainly isn’t closing quietly. Still, at midnight on April the 28th, 2008, the network will have its plugged pulled, and life support switched off.

The CDMA network will soon be dead. Long live the Telstra Next G network – and the upcoming 3.5G HSDPA networks from Optus and Vodafone!