can telecom legally shut down cdma in 2012?

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sbiddle

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#304662 5-Mar-2010 08:03

michaelt:
yuxek: i wonder why they don't just text message all their cdma customers 1 month in advance before the network closes instead of putting ads in newspapers? or can't they tell which numbers are on xt and which on cdma?

millions are probably still on cdma because XT went live only last year.

As already mentioned, Telecom have made an effort to move their customers over to XT. On Account customers will get free/subsidised phones, and for the Prepaid market they're ending (or maybe already have) CDMA $10 txt, while introducing unlimited $12 txt on XT. Most of the customers they'll have left by June 2012 will be very light cellphone users, I'd imagine a large number of them only turn on their cellphones every few months or don't know how to read a text message.

$10 TXT has not ended, it was recently extended indefinately.

old3eyes

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#304670 5-Mar-2010 08:39

The problem with CDMA users on Onebill will loose that feature and have to go to prepay of a plan of some sort. My wife intends to stay on CDMA until it closes down.

Regards,

Old3eyes

SteveON

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#304761 5-Mar-2010 13:52

old3eyes: The problem with CDMA users on Onebill will loose that feature and have to go to prepay of a plan of some sort. My wife intends to stay on CDMA until it closes down.

I feel sorry for your wife and anyone else who is on the old CDMA network having to put up with those poorly made phones. I know some were good, but 90% were terrible! In 2 years those phones will be paper-weights.

DeroyBoy

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#304789 5-Mar-2010 15:03

Most 2 year old phones are best used as paper weights anyway

ockel

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#304800 5-Mar-2010 15:13

Regs: SKY TV shut down their UHF feed when there were still subscribers on it. The Satellite services costs more so all the UHF subscribers were losing a cheaper service. They decided to give the UHF subscribers free sat upgrades and leave them at the old price for the next 12 months, after which all their subscriptions will go up. I expect that by the time they made this decision, keeping the old UHF network running was probably starting to cost them money.

I expect that Telecom will allow you to upgrade to a new XT prepaid plan and keep your credit (and phone number). They most likely already do. I doubt they will give you a free phone on prepaid though.

Sky's UHF broadcast contract with Kordia ends in March 2010 so the UHF network was going to end on that date unless an economic deal for a smaller UHF subs base was reached. I think you'll find that Sky made the decision a long time ago - and communicated it in annual reports etc.
One other aspect was that replacement parts for transmitters were becoming increasingly difficult to come by (apparently).

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old3eyes

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#304845 5-Mar-2010 16:46

Stuve:
old3eyes: The problem with CDMA users on Onebill will loose that feature and have to go to prepay of a plan of some sort. My wife intends to stay on CDMA until it closes down.

I feel sorry for your wife and anyone else who is on the old CDMA network having to put up with those poorly made phones. I know some were good, but 90% were terrible! In 2 years those phones will be paper-weights.

Her fone is hardly poorly made. When she got it a couple of years ago it was the top line Nokia that Telecom sold. Cost around $800 from memory..

Regards,

Old3eyes

digitaldivide

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#304866 5-Mar-2010 18:23

I would think, the legal team advising the Telecom NZ board, would advise that any public announcements around 'turning off' the CDMA network about now, would aid Government regulation regarding Mobile and/or Critical Infrastructure.

I'd would expect advice from that team would be to reduce exposure to any regulation between now, and the date announced for turning off the CDMA network.

Critical Infrastructure is RIPE for intervention by the Government, and due to the 'International Nature' of the vendors & providers of equipment within New Zealand, "mobile" networks I expect will fall within this definition.

This is on the assumption the technology will not be used towards the Telecom NZ LTE evolution - remember Frank Mount has previously announced publically, after XT was launched, that they were investigating this.

You'd think turning off the CDMA network would be successful when:

1/ Users of the network reliant on the CDMA network as "Critical Infrastructure" no longer had a reliance on it (i.e. most Telecom 'Geni' customers have moved to XT - Emergency Services, Top 100 Corporates, etc)

2/ And, the majority of Customers remaining on CDMA had been contacted in attempt to move to XT, chosen not to, and are disconnected. As easy as ads in 'major newspapers' to cover that.

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Behodar

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#305328 8-Mar-2010 09:53

old3eyes: The problem with CDMA users on Onebill will loose that feature and have to go to prepay of a plan of some sort. My wife intends to stay on CDMA until it closes down.

Hopefully there will be something similar to Onebill on XT by the time CDMA closes down. My mum's currently on CDMA prepaid and I'm going to suggest that she moves to Onebill since it's more convenient than having to top up all the time (plus by being on postpaid it'll also allow her to roam).

I think by mid-2012, the percentage of users still on CDMA will be minimal. Second-hand WCDMA850 phones should be plentiful by then, and a lot of users will have moved by attrition once they're ready for a new phone.

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