With only half its customers on XT, Telecom confirms CDMA kill date
With the clock almost two-thirds wound down, only around half of Telecom's customers have jumped to its new mobile network.
The clock is ticking on Telecom’s CDMA mobile network.
The company confirmed today that it will switch of its old cellular system on July 31 next year.
That could make for an exciting final push.
At its most recent quarterly update, Telecom said it had 51% or 1.1 million of its mobile customers on XT.
XT launched in May 2009 – meaning around two-thirds of the countdown for CDMA’s extinction has already passed, but only around 50% of customers have made the move.
Now, Telecom will have to pick up the pace. Vodafone and 2degrees will circle.
What now for all the CDMA infrastructure, on which Telecom spent so much during the Gattung regime, before acknowledging it had bet on the wrong mobile technology?
A Telecom's Ian Bonnar told NBR that some of the CDMA gear would be sold but "we don't expect it to be worth much, and some is likely to be scrapped."
Some CDMA gear could be re-used, Mr Bonnar said, including cabling, batteries and atennas.
"Even some of the civil engineering like the towers can potentially be re-used."
Telecom shares (NZX: TEL) were up 1.03% to $2.45 in late trading, closing in on their 52-week high.
NBR staff
Thu, 30 Jun 2011
Thu, 30 Jun 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
With only half its customers on XT, Telecom confirms CDMA kill date
15609