Telstra warns of plans to switch off its Australian CDMA network in less than 100 days.
Telstra has today urged CDMA customers to switch over to the new Next G service, as less than 100 days of uptime remain for its ageing CDMA network.
This will make thousands of phone handsets effectively useless overnight, as CDMA phones are not compatible with other forms of phone system.
Telstra claims that Next G coverage is now available appreciably similar area to that which CDMA covers. CDMA has traditionally been used in more remote areas.
However, Telstra’s language isn’t exactly confident:
"The Next G network is performing well and I encourage customers that have made the move to the new network and have any concerns to let us know, as once we know about a problem we can generally fix it quickly," said Mr Geoff Booth, Telstra Country Wide Group Managing Director.
Telstra is serving up a “carrot” offering in the form of $100 credit for postpaid CDMA customers who switch to Next G before the 13th of November 2007.
The “stick” follows closely behind with the “lights-off” date for the CDMA network fixed for the 28th of January 2008.
Telstra has also launched new signal-sensitive rugged phone models for use in rural or remote areas... Read more...
Will former CDMA customers encounter problems in the switch to Next G? Will they choose another provider instead? Email inbox@pcauthority.com.au with your experiences.