Australia’s Telstra will be switching off its CDMA network in favor of the new HSDPA-enabled 3G network, following the approval by the Australian government.
According to The Australian, initially the government resisted giving green light to the mobile operator over concerns that the new network would not be able to provide coverage in more remote areas and other technical issues. However, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told reporters he was “satisfied that Telstra has met the equivalence tests in its licence condition and has sufficiently rectified the problems I identified in January, including handheld handset coverage, customer information provision and the availability of equipment and services.”
Conroy urged Telstra’s CDMA customers to switch mobile providers as soon as possible or to take advantage of Telstra’s ongoing handset exchange scheme.
Telstra’s new HSDPA-enabled 3G network, known as “Next G”, uses 850 MHz rather than 2100 MHz enabling it to cover much greater geographic distances.