17^th December, 1999.

 

                              MEDIA RELEASE

                    APUMP CALLS ON HOWARD GOVERNMENT TO

                     DEFER ANALOGUE MOBILE PHONE CLOSURE

                           UNTIL 10:00am ON 6th FEBRUARY 2001

 

"We call upon the Howard-Anderson Government to defer the closure of Australia's Analogue Mobile Phone network until 10:00am on Tuesday 6th February 2001", says Boyd Munro President of the Association for the Protection of Users of Mobile Phones.

"Whilst Telstra's new CDMA network shows great promise for the future, it is clearly not yet an adequate replacement for the analogue network.  There are many examples of places which have analogue coverage today, but which do not have CDMA coverage.  There is a severe shortage of CDMA equipment in the shops.  Yet the Howard-Anderson government requires that the analogue network be closed down in just two weeks' time.

"There is no sound technical reason for the analogue network to be closed.  The only reason is a sweetheart deal between the Government and Vodafone, under which the government has sacrificed the interests of rural and regional Australia to a foreign-owned company.  But even under the terms of that sweetheart deal, the Government can still extend the life of the analogue network in order to 'protect the interests of consumers of telecommunications services'.  That is precisely what we call on the Minister for Communications to do.

"APUMP's tests in Northern NSW reveal that even in heavily populated areas there are serious gaps in CDMA coverage.  Neither Telstra nor the Federal Government has conducted thorough testing to determine whether the Federal Government's promises - that rural and regional Australia will not lose out - have been met.  It is quite clear that at this stage those promises have not been met.

"Indeed Telstra's Manager of Business Development for Mobile Phones was interviewed on ABC radio this week.  He made it clear that Telstra expects current users of bag-phones and car booster kits to operate both an analogue and a CDMA phone during the next 12 months if they need mobile phone coverage away from their home area.  This is a direct consequence of the premature closure of parts of the analogue network.

"This closure is extremely ill-planned.  Anyone involved in high-tech industries knows that it you are imposing a change on users, you don't do it at midnight - you do it at ten o'clock in the morning.  You don't do it at the weekend - you do it on a working day.  You don't do it in a holiday period.  Those are things that are known to anyone with experience of imposing technological change on users of technology.

"Yet the moment the Howard government has chosen is midnight, during the weekend, in the middle of Australia's peak holiday period.  What's more, it co-incides with the very moment when the Millennium bug will strike Australia's computers.

"We are not calling on the Howard government to require Telstra to do anything.  We are calling on the Howard government to allow Telstra to serve its customers well by operating the two systems side-by-side for a longer period.

"APUMP commends the Federal Member for Calare, Peter Andren, and the NSW State Member for Barwon, Ian Slack-Smith, for their courage in mentioning the unmentionable - that at this stage, the shiny new CDMA network is not an adequate replacement for the analogue network.

"APUMP's confidence in the long-term benefits of CDMA remains undiminished.  But there is no reason why the analogue network should be closed prematurely.  APUMP calls on rural and regional Members of Federal Parliament to press the Minister for Communications to allow the entire analogue network to remain in operation until 6th February 2001.

 

ENDS ...

 

Further information from Boyd Munro on 018 22 0047 or bmunro@apump.com  The entire Vodafone contract can be seen on APUMP's website at www.apump.com/vodacon.htm