Letter from APUMP Member to Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the National Party, John Anderson.
7 February 2000
The Hon J Anderson, MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Leader OF THE National Party
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Mr Anderson
Thank you for replying to my letter of 31 December 1999 regarding closure of the analogue phone service and poor coverage
in many areas of the replacement CDMA service.
You say, paragraph 2, that the then Labour Government's agreement to close the analogue system down is valid but
I note that Clause 3.2(c) of the contract provides that the Minister may extend the life of the analogue system for
the purpose of "Protecting or promoting the interests of consumers of telecommunications services"
Why has the Minister chosen not to invoke that clause which was put in the contract to protect the people of Australia
if the digital (GSM) phone service did not live up to expectations?
On 9 July 1998, Tim Fischer guaranteed the new CDMA would deliver equivalent
coverage to analogue in every location; you were Tim's deputy at the time, I assume the promises were made in good faith. Were you and
Tim "Dudded", then by whom? CDMA, in the experience of many regional Australians does not provide the coverage and range of analogue
Your statement in paragraph 7 "No one can guarantee that CDMA will deliver exactly
the same reception as AMPS (analogue) in every location for every subscriber, AMPS has it's black spots
and hot spots and CDMA will be the same. John, I am amazed at this statement, it appears to me to be an abrogation of the promise made by the Leader (Leaders) of my party 9/7/99
Do you John, use a CDMA phone at your farm? (I believe the analogue works there) You
are quoted by adviser David Kelly -"Mr Anderson has found in his home area that a CDMA
car kit with a high gain antenna gives excellent reception- significantly better than the 3 watt boosted car kit needed
to get best reception from AMPS"
I am confused because I thought it was a $4,000 satellite phone you were using during the televised 'Meet the Media' at your farm.
I wonder if your neighbours / constituents need, have or can afford satellite phones.
John, do you remember that your party supported the contractual commitment (by
Labor) to close down analogue(1992)?!! Nationals have made many mistakes in the
past in communications issues, and at last it is good to see that the National Party
politicians and the executive at the Albury meeting getting positive about a fair go for
regional and rural phone users.
I note that the second last paragraph of the press release for the Albury meeting refers to 'The provision of CDMA cells on town, where there is only GSM digital at
present agreed to by the Telstra board". In your letter to me, paragraph 5, you say
Telstra will install CDMA transmitters "on about 100 GSM only rowers around the country". Will towers in Cranbrook, Mt Barker and Southern Cross in Western
Australia be some of these selected in country? If not then why not? Will some regional
residents, travelers and visitors need to carry two mobile phones,
CDMA and digital to stay in touch? Gilbert and Sullivan would love this! !
John, the Nationals in the past have made many mistakes in the mobile phone saga,
some of them, I have alluded to, lets go forward and now use the window of opportunity
of the impending possible Telstra sale to get at least some semblance of fairness for
rural and regional Australians in regard to communications issues.
Faithfully
IF
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