A couple of months ago, Telstra wanted to shut off their CDMA network. The government told them to get stuffed, after they found that there wasn’t sufficient coverage for rural Australia.
Yesterday, Senator Conroy decided that our brothers in the bush would be adequately serviced by Telstra’s NextG, and gave the thumbs up to those technicians at the big T whose specific job it is to flick the switch on the CDMA network. Within two weeks on April 28, anybody still using a CDMA handset will hear little more than the chirping of crickets through their handset, although it’s more likely to sound like silence.
Although Telstra refused to say just how many people will be rushing out to their local Telstra dealer to buy a NextG handset in the next fortnight, the SMH is reporting that Deutsche Bank analysts believe the now obsolete network had 200,000 subscribers in January.
To make sure nobody’s left listening to the silence, Sol’s team of happy customer service representatives will be sending letters, SMS messages and calls to anybody still using a CDMA phone in the next two weeks.
One thing’s for sure – there’s going to be a huge uproar come April 28, when all of a sudden thousands of people realise that their phone doesn’t work anymore. No matter what the big T does about it between now and then.
[SMH]