In Brief: Telecom N.Z. in a handset supply jam

Telecom New Zealand's primary source of cell phones is pulling out of the CDMA market, meaning the telco could have to upgrade of its wireless network.

Analysts told The Dominion Thursday that Telecom could be forced to dive into a third-generation WCDMA buildup that could cost up to $800 million, or at least prompt an infrastructure alliance between Telecom and rivals Vodafone or TelstraClear.

The situation arose when Nokia said it was pulling out of the CDMA market.

Telecom officials told the newspaper that the company was satisfied with its 027 network, which runs on CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and was looking at new handset sourcing, which could include chipsets operating on both CDMA and WCDMA technology.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International