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Telstra to grinch WAP 1 network five days before Christmas

First-generation iPhone and feature phone users, your time is up

Telstra has quietly announced it will shutter its WAP 1 network, just five days before Christmas.

The carrier is warning that users of older handsets will lose the ability to send Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages or access the internet as of December 20th. The list of soon-to-be-internet-deprived handsets won't alarm anyone who has upgraded a phone in the last four or five years, as it mostly includes feature phones.

Apple's original 2G iPhone makes the list and seeing as Cupertino itself last year stopped supporting the device this probably spells the end of its useful life.

WAP1 never generated a lot of love, although MMS did add a nice new dimension to TXT messages.

Telstra's advice to those using affected phones is to “... simply remove your Telstra SIM card from the older model handset, and insert it into a newer model handset.”

For those who can can live without MMS and data, Telstra assures users SMS and voice services will not be disrupted.

All of which sounds like the catalyst for fetishising feature phones anew, as even experiments like Vulture South's downgrade to a feature phone will soon mean email is inaccessible. Which may be no bad thing. ®

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