In exactly one year it’ll be lights out for all CDMA devices currently operating on SaskTel’s network.
The company announced today that it is transitioning all its existing CDMA customers to its 4G and 4G LTE network by July 5th, 2017.
“By shutting down the CDMA network, we can repurpose spectrum so we can continue to add capacity to our 4G and 4G LTE network province-wide and resources can be refocused towards emerging technologies, products, and services,” stated SaskTel president and CEO Ron Styles.
CDMA is an outdated mobile standard that is currently being phased out by the Canadian telecom industry in favour of the GSM standard, which uses SIM cards.
Bell has stated that it will shut down all its CDMA sites by January 1st, 2017, while Telus has noted January 31st, 2017 as the cut-off date. MTS is due to shutter its CDMA network by the end of 2016. Rogers has always operated using GSM.
SaskTel also notes in its statement that roaming partners will likely begin to shut down their respective CDMA networks in early 2017 and says at least one roaming partner has confirmed it will be shutting down its network on January 31st, 2017. This will result in SaskTel customers losing coverage when leaving Saskatchewan if they continue using their CDMA device.
In other words, looks like it might be time to update grandma’s phone sometime soon.
Related reading: Telus shuttering CDMA service on January 31, 2017
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