Conroy orders delay on CDMA

IT'S game on. Only three months after its election, Kevin Rudd's Government has shown it is willing to intervene in the $34 billion telecoms sector.

Only three months after its election, Kevin Rudd's Government has shown it is willing to intervene in the $34 billion telecoms sector

Rudd's lively Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, celebrated his 45th birthday by telling the telecoms giant Friday it must delay closing its regional CDMA network.

Despite the almost spooky lack of aggression on either side, this is not good news for Telstra, which views any government or regulatory interference dimly, to say the least.

Conroy showed he is prepared to eat his own dog food. After calling for the publication of anything and everything when he was in Opposition, he has now done just that, releasing both the departmental reports he received on CDMA.

Conveniently, the finger was squarely pointed at the handsets available on Next G rather than at the network.

As is usual with new mobile technology, the networks are available to be deployed at least a year or two before a decent range of handsets is available from manufacturers.

Next G was a smart technological and strategic play by Telstra, sidelining its main mobile competitor, Optus. Telstra's biggest problem was boxing itself into such a tight timetable.

Despite Conroy appearing to put a spanner in Telstra's works, the announcement was greeted with remarkable equanimity by the telco. Countrywide chief Geoff Booth went so far as to "welcome" the decision.

"We have been on a path to resolve customer issues by January 28 and we were confident we would meet our deadline," Booth said.

"The minister has made a different assessment but we are very pleased he has given us a clear goal for closure, a process to get there, and a clear message to CDMA customers that they need to move quickly."

Warm. Cuddly even.

Conroy was conciliatory but there was a bit of stick, too.

"Where there is a genuine need for a blue-tick phone, it should be replaced at no cost to the customer," Conroy said.

But nothing too tough. After all, he doesn't want to pick a fight just yet with the one company that can help him execute his election promise of an $8 billion plus national broadband network.

Still, the Labor Party was never going to be good news for Telstra and anyone who thought that - particularly those inside Telstra - frankly, was wrong.

Financially, keeping CDMA open for another three months, or even six months is neither here nor there for a company that earns $22 billion a year. Telstra has never confirmed the figure but running CDMA is believe to cost it about $60 million a year.

It hasn't been an easy start for Conroy, who has been stuck in the very earliest stages of running his portfolio, with precious little good advice and Telstra schmoozing him something shocking - the love machine many are calling it - with Canberra-based government affairs manager David Quilty permanently hovering around his door.

As well, as this columnist has noted before, the federal communications department is increasingly out of its depth on both commercial and technical issues and being run by a relatively new chief with little relevant experience.

On CDMA it's best to leave the last word to a punter, as a mountain of anecdotal evidence suggests that, handset issues aside, Next G's coverage just isn't there. Late Friday Des Bennett from Nimbin called. "It has been a disaster, I shifted on November 11", he said. "I am running a business on the phone, I have lost thousands of dollars. The tower is right up on the hill behind me and it doesn't work. It's shit. The handset is the most expensive they have."

Yet Telstra seems to be deaf to its customers' complaints. Last night it launched a late attack on the ACMA report.

"Telstra strongly disagrees with ACMA's findings on handset sensitivities: its interpretation of the Licence Condition was wrong and its assumptions in comparing the two networks' handset ranges fundamentally flawed, particularly that they did not compare like for like", the company said, and much more.

Telstra appears to have a bit of work to do. Conroy has shown he will intervene and this is unlikely to be the last time. Interesting times.

Is your coverage of NextG better or worse than CDMA? Let us know.