Telstra's consumer and marketing group general manager, David Moffatt, said the carrier now had more than 7.6 million mobile customers, with an increasing proportion looking to CDMA services.
"CDMA is no longer just a 'bush network'. Much of the growth is now coming from metropolitan customers," Moffatt said. One in four CDMA network customers, Telstra claims, are now based in metropolitan areas.
CDMA --Code-Division Multiple Access-- is a form of multiplexing, which allows numerous signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimising the use of available bandwidth. The technology is used in ultra-high-frequency (UHF) cellular telephone systems in the 800-MHz and 1.9-GHz bands.
The CDMA network was originally Telstra's answer to expanding its telecommunication services in regional and rural areas, complementing the GSM network, which services primarily metropolitan areas. However, according the carrier, the growing choice of CDMA-capable handsets and "capabilities like built-in cameras, colour screens and high-speed wireless data" is boosting metropolitan residents' interest.
"Since 1999, Telstra has progressively rolled out this CDMA network which now reaches more than 98 percent of the population and covers almost 1.5 million km2, or around one-fifth of the continent," Moffat said.
By Christmas, Telstra plans to add a further 250 CDMA base stations, with over half of these base stations located in regional and outer metropolitan areas.
Group managing director of Telstra Country Wide, Doug Campbell, said the one-millionth subscriber was achieved at a time when "Telstra is finalising the roll out of Mobile High Speed technology, offering faster wireless data speeds virtually everywhere on the CDMA network".
He added that Telstra has also started work on new technologies that will "deliver wireless data at broadband speeds to key locations".
