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Telstra Launches Another Coonan Attack |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Wednesday, 12 September 2007 |
Determined
to turn off its critical rural CDMA mobile phone infrastructure and
force its remaining users onto the new 3G network, Telstra has taken
the war of words and regulation between itself and Communications
Minister HelenCoonan to the courts in a bid to stop her imposing a
licence condition that the new network must match the service levels of
the one they wish to turn off.
Since early August Minister Coonan has made it clear that she
intends to require Telstra to keep the CDMA network running until it "makes good its promise that the Next G
services will provide the same or better coverage and services as the
CDMA network".
Telstra claims this and other statements made by Senator Coonan and
her colleagues demonstrate they are not maintaining an "open mind on
the
question of whether to impose a licence condition" until they have
heard Telstra's argument.
So Telstra has filed documents in the Federal Court to try to prevent her from imposing the restriction.
Group Managing Director of Telstra Public Policy and Communications,
Phil Burgess, said Telstra was "forced to take legal
action against the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan,
following mounting evidence that the Minister seems determined to
hamper the Next G network broadband deployment by prejudging the
outcome of her consultation with Telstra on the draft CDMA licence
condition.
That
is not to say that she is incorrect in her estimation of the service
quality that will be available in January when Tesltra wants
to shut down the old network, but that she has demonstrated a belief
that the 3G service does not match the CDMA coverage and service
without hearing Telstra's argument that it does.
Telstra
Country Wide Group Managing Director, Geoff Booth, said the
new network was already larger than CDMA network as it covers around 2
million square kms, in comparison
to the CDMA network which covers around 1.6 million square kms. However
anecdotal reports from users suggest that service quality and coverage
does not match the old network quality.
"The Next G network rollout is ahead of schedule and we are fully
committed to turning off the old CDMA network on 28 January 2008," Mr
Booth said.
"By law the Minister was required to consider the matter with an
open mind and recent comments by her and her colleagues show that this
was clearly not the case.
"She and her colleagues not only repeatedly made clear that the
licence condition was being imposed before Telstra had made its
submission to the consultation process, but the licence condition
itself pre-empted a promised independent review of Next G network
coverage.
Concerns that the new Telstra network would not service
rural Australia
to the same extent as the older network prompted Senator Helen Coonan, Minister
for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to declare in August
that the ACMA would audit the two networks to ensure Telstra maintained adequate
coverage with its new infrastructure.
In late November 2006, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced it had selected a Melbourne-based company, Zamro International , to carry out the
benchmarking audit of service coverage of Telstra's new 3G network.
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