The days of CDMA are coming to an end and as elegantly worded by Telstra's Country wide director, Gary Goldsworthy "Australians know that the clock is well and truly ticking down". We initially reported Telstra's decision to turn off the CDMA network in July 2007 and at the time of writing this story there are officially 19 days left with D-Day coming on 28 January 2008.

Recently Telstra recorded a surge in customer enquiries about how to migrate from CDMA to the Telstra Next G network causing them to release a press statement outlining the most frequently asked questions. In addition to reading the release, I have also contacted Telstra to obtain some extra details regarding customers on CDMA contracts and their various options, the current set up will be as follows:

• Telstra is trying to make the transition as simple as possible for current CDMA customers by offering a $100 bonus for current CDMA post-paid customers to move to the Next G network.


• If a customer is on a Telstra CDMA contract and decided to move to Telstra Next G, the CDMA contract gets cancelled and a new Next G contract will need to be signed. The old contract becomes completely invalid and the new contract starts from the day it's signed. The customer can switch to any new plan i.e. it can be either higher or lower than their old CDMA contact.


• If a customer is on a Telstra CDMA contract and decides to port out or cancel, then a cancellation fee will be charged. The cancellation figure will be as per contractual agreement.


• If nothing is done before the network is switched off, then the mobile number will be lost (cancelled). When I spoke to Telstra I was informed that it will be gone forever, but this doesn't sound very right to me as I would of assumed that there would some plan for those customers that did not act in time or have some reason for not being able to make arrangements, e.g. overseas, sickness etc.