Wellington Test Bed for Telecom High-Tech Network

Wellington is the test bed for Telecom's new high-tech mobile phone network.

In partnership with Lucent Technologies, a small scale model CDMA network has been established at a central city mobile switching centre.

The new technology, when it is launched commercially next year, will enable customers to access the Internet from their mobile phones, with the voice clarity of a fixed-line phone.

"Testing is well underway on the CDMA network and to date the trial has delivered on our early hopes," Telecom General Manager, Mobility, Lorraine Witten said today.

Testing includes the network's capacity, coverage, and call quality.

"By operating over some mobile phone sites in the central city the trial is also letting us test the performance of a range of CDMA phones as well as the network itself."

This ‘first look’ at the network also lets us get a good idea of how different services will operate over our new network next year.

"Telecom made the first call on the CDMA Network at the beginning of June.

"Telecom is the first to deploy a CDMA network in New Zealand which will over time deliver a far greater data capacity and speed than exisitng mobile networks.

“With CDMA Telecom will have a direct path to Third Generation, or 3G, technology.

"Extensive testing will also be carried out to ensure that existing mobile network performance continues to meet Telecom’s high performance standards," Ms Witten said.

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