CDMA phones

You dont renew the contract it just continues all you do is keep paying the bill as it comes in. I was on a 10 dollar2 year contract for over 3 years and the only reason I renewed it was because I got a cdma phone on another 2 year contract. Well it has been over 2 years and again no mention of renewing contracts - just continues on the same deal

If your after cdma you only have telstra and orange as options forget orange digi network as it is crap but if your in outer network it will roam on telstra cdma anyway.

Colin,

CDMA is digital technology too, just a different technology.

Quote from the CDMA Development Group:-
"CDMA is a "spread spectrum" technology, allowing many users to occupy the same time and frequency allocations in a given band/space. As its name implies, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) assigns unique codes to each communication to differentiate it from others in the same spectrum. In a world of finite spectrum resources, CDMA enables many more people to share the airwaves at the same time than do alternative technologies."

If you are getting reception on your CDMA phone, stick with it. You will obtain everything you can with a GSM phone.

You could experiment with an external aerial to further boost the signal, but this is only practical whilst in a vehicle.

Oh, and you DON'T need a contract.
You can buy a CDMA phone outright as a prepaid option and just top up as you go.
Current Telstra Prepaid will give you double the amount as a bonus. (e.g. pay for $30.00 worth of calls and get $60.00 worth of credit)

You can buy a pre-paid phone and if your GSM or other CDMA account is with Telstra and you wish to keep the existing number, ask them to transfer your current mobile number to the new prepaid account.

Good Luck.

Hi Col,

We have just returned from a 7 week trip into western Qld and then down the East Coast. Our phone was not CDMA and would not work once north of Moree.
We had no coverage anywhere in Qld until we arrived back on the coast at Cooktown. The other 4 couples with us had CDMA and had coverage in every town. (Except in far western Qld at Lawnhill).
We are off to buy a new CDMA phone.
The Telstra web site says the CDMA also works well in the major cities.

We also have been told our free 20 minutes "Happy Hour" calls will stop soon and we must renew the contract and select another option. I expect that if we don't renew then the free calls will stop and the billing will go on as normal without any bonus options.

I think the free call option was too good for the customer and not a money earner for Telstra.

Cheers,
Bob Southwell

Does anyone have any comment on which provider has the best cdma coverage ?

Does not answer the question but might help in the decision making for anyone looking at cdma.

Cheers,
Stu

Telstra has the only national CDMA network on which it sells capacity to Optus, Vodafone doesn't offer CDMA and Orange only has a small network in cities where it has a licence to operate. Outside of these areas its customers use the Telstra network like Optus does.

Thanks guys for your input.

As Optus and Telstra no longer appear to have a 20 minutes free within the happy hour, I guess I will have to sit down and review our total phone situation, to see who is realy supply to best deal.

My receipt shows that the CDMA phone contract was entered into on the 3/01/04, but Telstra gave told me that it finishes on the 3/12/05. However my spy tells me that all old deals finish on the 31/12/05, and will not be extended.

I think that under this new Yank consortium of management, plus it being sold off, things will only get worse. I guess the high executive salaries have to come somewhere, and it looks from yours and mine pockets.

Regards and thanks again

Col Tigwell

A couple of months ago, I was out of contract, and wanted to move to CDMA. The important points I discovered are:

- If you don't renew your contract - just stick to a 'plan' - you get to keep your free-time until December-ish.

- Telstra is the only CDMA provider with which you can get prepaid.

- You can get a pre-paid pack, with a new phone, starting from about $90, but you have to change your number.

- To buy a CDMA phone outright from Telstra, you'd be looking at upwards of $400.

In the end, I bought a phone off eBay, then took it into the shop. They then switched over to the new phone, then changed me to pre-paid, with no fees! - to my surprise.

I wanted to go to pre-paid anyway, but it was a nice surprise that you can make 10c 10min phone calls to other mobiles after 9pm.