"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5ua3k3F1gtmfbU1@mid.individual.net...
> Alan Parkington <alanparkington@team.telstra.net> wrote
>
>> From
>> http://business.smh.com.au/cash-carr...0103-1k2c.html
>
>> ELSTRA has resorted to offering customers on its CDMA mobile phone
>> network a cash incentive to switch services, in the latest sign it is
>> struggling to force thousands of users to make the move just three
>> weeks before the old regional network is scheduled to be shut down.
>
>> The company yesterday introduced a $50 cash-back offer for CDMA
>> customers who buy a pre-paid Samsung mobile phone recommended for use in
>> rural areas. Telstra has given customers until January 28 - when the
>> network is due to close - to accept the offer.
>
> So much for the lie that what they would offer in Dec was the best it
> would ever be.

Yes - exactly. I think those who transferred over to more expensive
non-cashback handsets last year should demand a $50 credit from Telstra, or
else complain to the ACCC and TIO that their previous claims (ie: spin
doctor John Rolland's letter to customers) were misleading and deceptive, in
breach of the Trade Practices Act.

>
>> It will not say how many customers are still using the regional
>> network, but says it is on track to close it this month despite the
>> possibility that the Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy,
>> will prevent it from happening should it fail to pass an audit.
>
>> A report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority is
>> expected to go before Senator Conroy next week.
>
>> An Ovum telecommunications analyst, David Kennedy, said Telstra's
>> cash-back offer was "fairly substantial", which suggested that
>> significant numbers of customers were still using the CDMA network.
>
>> Telstra's biggest mobile phone dealer, Fone Zone, estimated in late
>> October that more than 880,000 customers remained on the network.
>
>> However, a month later Telstra said the figure was "several hundred
>> thousand customers".
>
>> Mr Kennedy said Telstra would only be offering incentives to customers
>> because it still had many who were resisting the switch to the
>> much-trumpeted NextG network. "It could only be because they are not
>> upgrading customers fast enough," he said.
>
>> However, Mr Kennedy said it was unclear how many customers had switched
>> to NextG over Christmas, which was traditionally when people upgraded
>> their mobile phones.
>
>> "The faster the migration the better because during the migration
>> period [Telstra is] bearing the cost of running two separate
>> networks. Their cost base is elevated . which is why Telstra is so keen
>> to do the switch-off in the period they had proposed."
>
> Another bare faced lie.
>
>> But a Telstra spokesman, Peter Taylor, said the closure of the
>> network was on track after "exceptionally busy" trading last month.
>> Telstra was opening temporary kiosks in regional areas to help
>> customers make the shift.
>
>



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