Telecom New Zealand pulling plug on its CDMA network in 2012
By Chris Ziegler 
posted July 8th 2010 2:28PM
posted July 8th 2010 2:28PM
It's a bit early to sound CDMA's death knell, but this is definitely an interesting development: New Zealand's Telecom NZ is getting ready to switch off its legacy CDMA network just a year after turning on its HSPA-based one. It gets even crazier, though, because although CDMA will go dark in 2012, EV-DO service will actually be turned off before that on November 30 of this year. That's an extremely rapid transition that's presumably being egged on by the carrier's desire to free up spectrum for next-gen services, but we can't even imagine the kind of chaos you'd see if Verizon or Sprint did that -- or Canada's Bell or Telus, for that matter, both of which actually have recently added HSPA networks to their footprints. Let's hope Telecom makes it as painless as possible for legacy customers to migrate, eh?
If Sprint does this, there'll be hell to pay.
With a bunch of new customers switching for the Evo or the Epic, it'll be bad joojoo to pull a dumbass move like that.
Not that it could happen here with VZW or Sprint, since CDMA makes up more than half of the US's wireless traffic, but still. Not a good sign.
The crazy thing about NZ is that Telecom's CDMA coverage is still much greater than their HSDPA Deployment. There are streches where there is ample CDMA coverage but lacking in the other. But there were stretches were I can drive and not have coverage on either network. Time to bring a SPOT with me next time I go!
CDMA is Dead! Bye bye VZW & Sprint!
This proves why Apple an many HTC DEvices are never made in CDMA flavors cause it'll be dead in the next year or so since VZW is getting LTE & joining GSMA protocol
@PhillyZ said: "CDMA is Dead! Bye bye VZW & Sprint!
This proves why Apple an many HTC DEvices are never made in CDMA flavors cause it'll be dead in the next year or so since VZW is getting LTE & joining GSMA protocol"
Nonsense. Proves nothing. FAIL.
So, you wouldn't make devices for a carrier that will maintain a legacy CDMA network for the next 10 years? No money in that? What are you thinking?
Even when LTE rolls out, how will your new device make the phone call? Guess what? LTE currently has no standard for voice. True! Look it up! LTE is a data-centric standard, not meant for sending and receiving actual calls. Bye-bye Sprint & VZW? WHATEVER! Wake up!
@Unverified
Awwww someone as an old & obsolete VZW or sprint phone huh?
GSM & sim cards are the best I'm so glad I left Verizon back when they locked down phones from key features like wi-fi
Plus Europe has some sweet unlocked phones that are all GSM an that's y I have AT&T so I can pop my sim into any phone I want
@(Unverified) They've already selected a standard for voice on LTE......you are behind the times. VZW also stated that they want to have voice on LTE as soon as the network was fully deployed.
@Unverified User
The GSMA is backing One Voice/VoLTE for the Voice over LTE standard.
The question is whether they will use CS-Fallback or VoLGA (Voice over LTE General Access) to handle calls that leave the LTE area. If they choose fallback, CDMA will be around for 5 - 10 years. If they choose VoLGA, CDMA will fade away faster.
Personally I hope they choose VoLGA, as it would enable users to make calls over wifi, taking some load of the cellular network. Also, CS-Fallback means you deal with the same limitations of the old network when you do fall back, such as no simultaneous voice/data.
CDMA will die, but so will GSM. The difference is that GSM's offspring (LTE) is the new king, while CDMA's decendant has been abandoned.
@bernardino GSM should also be dieing because of UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+
Aaah man I wish Sprint and Verizon would move to HSPA GSM networks as well. With LTE coming, Verizon will definitely be a viable option other than AT&T and Tmobile, thankfully!
More places to insert my SIM card in is always good. More competition! And I can take my unlocked phone to any carrier finally. We need to get rid of this subsidized crap phone model.
This is a barrier to innovation!
You know, as long as they gave a large enough lead time (say a year or two) and provided replacement devices free-of-charge and no contract extension, I would have to problem with Sprint or VZW moving over to GSM+HSPA+LTE. I think Sprint will end up on the LTE bandwagon anyway at some point and then they just need to dump the legacy CDMA stuff.
@thedigitante Oops: "I would have NO problem with..."
@thedigitante
"...dump the legacy CDMA stuff."
Well, FYI, it's going to be around a lot longer than you think.
Sprint and Verizon will likely migrate their data networks to LTE, Sprint's WiMax build out notwithstanding, but something needs to be in place to support basic phone calls ... and that would be the legacy CDMA network.
@(Unverified) Yeah, I've heard here and there that the CDMA voice networks will probably still be around in 10 years which I find disheartening.
That being said, a VOIP tech on LTE would definitely be a possibility, so hopefully they work that out.
@ahow628
"BARCELONA, Spain--Verizon Wireless Executive Vice President of Network Planning Bill Stone said the carrier has installed IP Multimedia Subsystem technology and is currently testing it on its 3G network. Specifically, Stone said Verizon "will deploy IMS VoIP as soon as we can after the introduction of LTE smartphones," though he declined to provide a timeframe."
*Crap, for got where i saw that lol*
but yea they have to keep cdma around so that there is a network for people with CDMA phones, it will take a long time to migrate everyone off of CDMA on a network this massive.
Good, time for CDMA to die, now its time for the US carriers to do the same.
Don't be surprise if people start getting letters that their iden phones are going to be dead in 90 days. Sprint needs to clear spectrum to start Lte buildout.