Reliable old network still destined for the dustbin

Telecom intends to go ahead with decommissioning its CDMA network in 2012, despite the issues with its XT Network.

Gen-i boss Chris Quin- during a public webcast - acknowledged that the 20-year old CDMA offered a reassurance of service that isn’t currently being met by its cutting-edge XT Network. But the company have no plans to delay switch off.

See TR story: “XT: What’s gone wrong? How are they fixing it?”

In the current crisis, Telecom's corporate users in affected areas have been given CDMA-enabled handsets in order to ensure connectivity. It is not possible for many users to switch between Telecom and Vodafone’s/2degrees networks because Telecom is on 850MHz and its competitors are on 900MHz

Quin says he has received 400-500 emails ranging from the supportive to the emotional. He began the webcast by apologising and said the company is working 24/7 to restore “what we dreamt about when we built this for our customers.”

He says the company is working to the following priorities – fix the outstanding cellsites, get full service up and running, look at compensation to customers.

Telecom is commissioning an independent review and is seeking feedback from corporate customers. Quin says the review will be made public.