From
http://cowra.yourguide.com.au/news/l...y/1222624.html

Senator Stephen Conroy has expressed his satisfaction with the Telstra's
amendments to its Next G service, meaning the CDMA shut down is just weeks
away and people are being urged to switch to the Next G network.
Customers that stay with CDMA after the network shutdown will not be able to
use their phones.

Telstra phone dealer of Martins in Cowra Greg Nichols said there was a rush
of people before the first schedule shut down and he is expecting this to
happen again.

"In January we changed over a lot of phones. Telstra will send a SMS to all
CDMA phones reminding them of the shutdown."

The reason the shutdown was delayed by three months was because Senator
Stephen Conroy the Minister of Broadband, Communications and the Digital
Economy stated the Next G coverage was not up to the standard of CDMA and
therefore not able to be shutdown.

Three months on, Telstra has been working with the Minister and they believe
they have it up to speed now.

"A lot of the problem was people were just walking in and buying a phone,
they were not buying like for like. For example if people were using an
external aerial then they need to swap their new phone and make sure they
have an external aerial. The most important thing is people need to swap
like for like," Mr Nichols said.

Telstra's customer service and technical manager, Mick Downing said it is
extremely important that people have the right handsets.

"Telstra started marketing the Next G system before it was ready and with
statements like 'Coverage anywhere you need it' and 'Better than CDMA' were
proved to be false and people lost faith.

"Now we are up to the CDMA standard and it is actually a stronger signal
than CDMA."

Mr Downing agreed people need phones for different reasons. "Within the
metropolitan areas there is not a problem and people don't have to
compromise or have high gain aerials, but in the bush people need a blue
tick phone, which means it is best suited for the bush and people need a
solid connection and a high gain aerial in their cars."

Phones that are the most beneficial in country areas are the blue tick
phones; Samsung A412, the LG TU500, the ZTE 158 and the ZTE 165.

"People need to really ask lots of questions when buying a new phone and
explain their intended use of the product," Mr Downing said.

Telstra Countrywide Area Manager Chris Taylor is confident the new system is
equal to that of CDMA and if people are still having problems it could be
due to the handset.

"The problem in country areas was the handsets, the network was fine. People
need to get the right phone for their situation and now we have phones that
are suitable for people living out of metropolitan areas," Mr Taylor said.

A recent survey by the NSW Farmers' Association found that 71 per cent of
farmers surveyed found the CDMA network to be more reliable than the new
Next G network.

NSW Farmers' Association released the preliminary results of a state wide
survey which included 1,200 people.