| Media Release |   |
| 17 May, 2001 | 99/2001 |
Telstra and Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited today announced each of their CDMA networks can now send and receive text messages with the Telstra GSM network.
CDMA has been gathering pace as an alternative to GSM mobiles with Telstra expanding its digital coverage in Australia and Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited rolling out its Orange One local zone product.
SMS messaging has been available between GSM carriers since April 2000 and has seen unprecedented growth, with 63 million messages sent in January. About 30 per cent of all mobile users take up their SMS option. With messaging between different CDMA and GSM networks, these message volumes will increase significantly.
Today's announcement will benefit CDMA users, who had only been able to send messages to customers of the same carrier. Telstra and Orange believe that the agreement should go further with other carriers allowing CDMA users to send and receive messages to their networks.
Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited Chief Executive Officer, Barry Roberts-Thomson, said, "Today's agreement is good news for consumers. Text messaging is very popular and we are pleased to be able to offer our Orange One customers an extended capability in this area. We hope to see a time in the not too distant future when the other GSM carriers come on board to enable SMS for all CDMA customers."
Telstra Wholesale's Managing Director, Ms Rosemary Howard, said, "Australian mobile phone users have embraced SMS messages. Since GSM users have been able to send messages to other carriers' GSM customers, message volumes shot up from 7,000 per day to 51,000 - now CDMA Telstra and Orange customers have the same opportunity to message one another.
"Due to the inherent coverage and other advantages of the new CDMA technology it is rapidly becoming a preferred mobile technology. For our customers living and working in rural and regional Australia, today's announcement will further help them.
"Consumers and the industry have called for SMS to operate fully between all networks, before Mobile Number Portability occurs on 25 September - this agreement is an important first step."
| Media inquiries Graeme Salt - Telstra Wholesale 02 9298 5256 or 0417 653862 |
Trisha Fox - Orange 02 9964 4850 or 02 8902 3250 Orange One |
Media releases are published on the Telstra Newsroom. The address is www.telstra.com.au/newsroom
About Hutchison
Hutchison Telecommunications (Australia) Limited (Hutchison) provides a broad range of wire-free communications products and services including the world-first Orange One mobile and local service and paging and messaging services. For more information on Orange, please visit www.orange.net.au.
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