Federal Member for Barker Patrick Secker said Next G phone reception in the Murraylands was not up to the standard of what CDMA had offe-red.

“This is bad news for the safety and security of constituents in the Barker electorate,” Mr Secker said.

“My office continues to be swamped with complaints of poor reception and black spots under Next G.”

Mr Secker’s office last week received between eight and 10 phone calls from constituents about the CDMA closure.

Telstra Country Wide area general manager Mark Bolton said he urged Mr Secker to come forward with any Next G network customer issues.

“If Mr Secker does have any issues to raise, then I would love to hear from him so we can help our customers, but he seems more intent on playing political and media games,” Mr Bolton said.

Mr Secker said he referred all constit-uents who contacted his office with problems concerning the Next G network to Telstra’s hotline number.

The closure of CDMA was scheduled for February 28 of this year, however Broa-dband, Communica-tions and Digital Economy Minister Step-hen Conroy delayed this closure as Next G did not provide services equivalent to CDMA at the time.

Telstra has spent the past few months impr-oving the information, handsets and services customers are provided with in order to meet the Federal Govern-ment demands.

- Details: People with concerns about Next G or their handset should contact Telstra’s customer hotline on 1800 888 888.