CDMA coverage on the decline?

You got that right mate.
I need a PHONE only, not a bloody Camera,video player, games machine, emailer,MP3 player, I got a good Digital Camera , I got a good car Radio that plays MP3s and WMAs

Doug

You need a new phone for the new service (CDMA 900MHz, NextG 850MHz).

Have a talk to them, I believe they are doing some deals. Main issue is the number of compatible phones with the new service, only 2 or 3 at the moment.

Hey Gary are the Orange 3G phones compatible? I guess not from your comment above?

Totally different frequency Bonz. NextG is closer to CDMA. Replace that Blackberry with a JASJAM, have a look http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/mobiles/phones/details_nextg.cfm?phones_id=36827

The Blackberry is doing fine, getting an I-Mate on Next G soon

No real problems with my Blackberry just yet in and around the Cooma to Sydney areas. They will have to break both of my legs to get me off it - I rely on its 1XEV broadband speed to look after my office web servers remotely. Brilliant for email in and out too. It LETS me get out into the great outdoors - otherwise I'd be chained to a desk.

Guys I know with Blackberry systems can't open attachments so bought IMATE ones instead. Of course some want excuses not to open legal documanets.

Just use DocHawk on a Blackberry to open anything at all. Works very well.

That I-Matelooks terrible. What a fiddly, horrible thing to have to try and use. It'd last about 5 minutes for me.

G'day Stephen,
I'm with Doug and Ray.
Have never owned a mobile, but the time approaches.
Is there a 'best path', or is it all a crazy maze into technical brilliance? JH.

I spoke direct to Telstra about this and the official word is that there will NO downgrading of CDMA prior to it's demise in 2008.....officially. Can this be believed.....the cynic in me says NO as I have definately noticed a poorer coverage generally. For example, where I live in Melbourne, I used to get perfect reception standing in my kitchen......now it drops out regularly.

Can you explain how this happens, Stephen, given you work for Telstra? Is what another of the poster's stated true, that as the Nxt G towers go up the CDMA ones are disabled??

It's got me beat. I would be happy to change to Next G, but currently there are no phones available that have access to externally mounted antennas to extend their range, like I have on the CDMA and none available with powered in-car kits.

I guess I just have to put up with the poor service, until the new fangled network picks up momentum. Sounds like more use of the HF!!!!

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Mark
I DO NOT WORK for TELSTRA. I work in an electrical store, and we are Telstra dealers, not a Telstra Store. I am not Defending Telstra, in fact I think that they are a joke. We were told the the new Next G system was still some time off, then without any warning at all, we get the new phones and are told that it is up any running. The number of phones that are available are still very limited, but like most new things, there will be a greater choice in the coming months.

From what we have been told by the Telstra rep, is that the CDMA system will not be turned off until they have all the bugs ironed out and Next G is running correctly, but do we believe this? Like I said before, we are in country SA and there are hundreds of vehicles fitted with car kits, that will be useless with the new phones.

I feel that it is about time the over paid Telstra executives and Politicians get off their big fat A*&%$ are get out in the real world, to see what the phone system is like once you leave the Capital Cities.

Cheers

Stephen.

Hi, It's true what you have been told, the NextG is running side by side with the CDMA system and wont be switched off until sometime early? 2008. In know that for fact, I also know the Nextg system isn't giving the coverage they expected it too but they are "working on it" :) I was at a mates place down southern NSW last week, the coverage at his place is so bad that his nokia CDMA gets no signal, my Kyocera just manages to hold a call and it hasn't changed since Nextg was switched on so the issue with coverage south of melbourne maybe just a local problem? regards, peter.

Inside goss from someone with a relative in mid-upper management at Hellstra is that an effort was made to get the NextG system up and running (in record time apparently) to "compensate" for not having a fibre to the node system on the table yet (ACCC negotiations...) as a marketing tool for the T3 sale, and to deflect attention away from this serious lack of infrastructure.

Smoke and mirrors, boys and girls....

We now have a "high speed broadband service" available from Telstra. Unfortunately only a small part of the population will ever be able to use it simultaneously due to bandwidth limitations given its present capacity to pass data. The equations are quite simple, if everyone wants to use it for high speed broadband communications, then we are going to have to have smaller cells, meaning many more towers in urban/suburban areas. Wont that go down a treat with the neighbourhoods.....

The Telstra con is on.

"as the Nxt G towers go up the CDMA ones are disabled?? "

There will be no NextG towers going up. NextG operates on the same frequency as CDMA and will use the existing CDMA aerials and towers.

To activate NextG at a cell they will remove some CDMA channel units and install some Next Channel units. As Next G traffic increases they will remove more CDMA channel units and replace them with NextG.

It is possible that you will get worse CDMA service as the CDMA channels are disconnected, because if there are no free channels at your nearest CDMA cell, your call will have to be handled by a more distant base. If there is no more distant base in range, your call will dropout !

Mike DiD

If we all use them as phones there will be no need for more towers. However if we all start using them for massive downloads of movies, and other bandwidth intensive uses (due to the proposed better than ADSL speeds), then we WILL need more towers to cater for the same set of frequencies being used by smaller and smaller cells (transmission areas) caused by the increased use of the 3G internet.

Gary - true, higher bandwidth usage will mean more capacity needed.

My comment was only intended to refer to the current changeover from CDMA to NextG.