Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is embarking on an ambitious plan in Australia to migrate all of its 2G customers from its CDMA network onto the carrier's W-CDMA 3G system and shut down the 2G network. The move came after rival, Telstra, closed its own CDMA network in favor of a national 800 MHz WCDMA network within three years. The closure would have left Hutchison's CDMA network without a roaming partner to provide national CDMA coverage. As an incentive, Hutchison will provide exclusive offers to its 2G customers, such as attractive price plans and heavily subsidized handsets in a bid to attract them to the new service. Hutchison said that in January alone, it migrated more than 20,000 2G users onto its 3G network.
To read more about Hutchison's plans in Australia:
- check out this article from cellular-news.com