Letter sent to Telstra follows:

"After a period of rather intense lobbying from Telstra with regard to switching over to the Next G network from the CDMA system, I recently changed over while I was visiting Geraldton.

I was advised that the Samsung A412 was the correct phone for use in regional areas and as my home base is 4 kilometres south of Popanyinning, this was the phone I selected.

Imagine my disappointment on returning home to find that the service I now get from Next G is not as good as that I used to enjoy with CDMA � despite Telstra�s protestations to the contrary. After speaking to friends who had already changed over to Next G, I was most concerned that the new service would not deliver what Telstra was promising. I specifically brought this matter up with your sales person at the Geraldton store and was assured that the service would in fact be better than CDMA.

On returning to Popanyinning soon afterward, I have now found that the Next G service is nowhere near to as good as the CDMA service was and that I am now missing calls all the time.

My husband and I travel frequently and do not have access to a land line. For this reason we are totally dependant on our mobile phone and I now find that we do not receive incoming calls at all while staying at Popanyinning. For some odd reason we do receive messages from Telstra telling us we have missed a call when the phone has not even rung.

Even when taking the phone outside (the only way I can actually make a call) the signal fades in and out � something noted by one of your own operators when I was speaking to her with regard to the problems I am having.

We live in a caravan on a permanent basis and the Next G signal (unlike the CDMA signal) does not seem to reach the phone inside the van. I have enquired about the possibility of Telstra supplying gratis, or at a much reduced cost, a �car kit� with an external aerial that could be mounted on the van so that I can receive a proper signal. Sadly to date, I have just been fobbed off by Telstra sales staff.

My husband is in receipt of a disability pension and we simply cannot afford the exorbitant expense of a car kit. As Telstra�s Next G system does not deliver what we were promised and we cannot use the phone properly, I have to now consider returning the phone and asking for our contract to be cancelled � that is unless something can be done so that I can receive the service I was promised.

I hope you will be able to help resolve this situation and as I am currently visiting Bunbury (and will be here until about December 20) I am taking the opportunity to write to you in the hope of a speedy resolution."

Predictably no reply of any kind has been received.