Telstra Country Wide Group Managing Director, Mr Geoff Booth, today welcomed
the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy's
confirmation that the Next G Network was providing an equivalent network
coverage footprint to the outgoing CDMA network.

Mr Booth also re-committed Telstra to continue to work with the small number
of customers who may be experiencing genuine issues with equipment.

He said he was pleased that Telstra could now proceed with plans to close
the network by 28 April 2008 and complete the migration of customers.

Phil Burgess, Group Managing Director for Public Policy & Communications,
said, "We welcome the Government's decisive action on this important
transition in the nation's telecommunications future. We are also pleased
that the Minister has provided clear direction to Telstra and to consumers
about how to proceed to make sure this transition is completed: Telstra has
to fix remaining problems and consumers have to make the transition."

Mr Booth said: "We have been on a path to resolve customer issues by 28
January and we were confident we would meet our deadline. The Minister has
made a different assessment but we are very pleased that he has given us a
clear goal for closure, a process to get there, and a clear message to CDMA
customers that they need to move quickly."

Mr Booth said that the ACMA test showed that Telstra had met its commitment
that the Next G network would provide as good or better network coverage
where customers use the right handsets and equipment.

Mr Booth also noted that the "blue tick" program ensured that customers
would have access to the right handsets with the right range to meet the
diverse needs of our country and city customers.

He said a large percentage of customers had already migrated to the bigger,
faster Next G network and were already embracing a range of new services
such as high-speed mobile broadband and video calling.