Telstra can close CDMA for good says govt

The government has officially given Telstra the all-clear to close its second generation CDMA mobile network, saying that the telco has made all the necessary improvements that delayed its closure earlier this year.

"I am satisfied that Telstra has met the equivalence test in its licence condition and has sufficiently rectified the problems," said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

The network, which Telstra had hoped to shutdown in late January will now officially be closed on 28 April.

Earlier this year, Conroy imposed a three-month delay to the closure of the CDMA network, citing concerns including the information Telstra sales staff were providing to customers around devices, handset coverage and whether customers using the CDMA wireless local loop had access to the right equipment to migrate to Next G.

In response, Telstra agreed to swap handsets for customers having "genuine problems" and opened a free hotline for those having problems switching from CDMA to Next G. Both schemes will continue until 1 July. Telstra will also report to the Minister before July on whether the schemes should be extended after that date.

In January, the company also created a team of Next G advocates, charged with visiting those who had yet to make the switch and encouraging them to adopt Next G.

Telstra will now send customers still on the CDMA network an SMS to let them know of the impending closure, as well as two more text messages one week and 24 hours before the network is shut down.

It is not known how many customers remain on the CDMA network, but at a recent investor briefing, CEO Sol Trujillo said that three percent of the company's revenues derive from the second generation network.

AAP contributed to this report.