The irresistible power of marchitecture - The Good Spinola
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US faces analogue phone service cut
THE US is counting down to the end of its analogue mobile phone service.
From February 18, the FCC is no longer demanding that mobile phone outfits provide an analogue service. Not surprisingly most of them are saying sod this for a game of solders and are pulling the plug.
Quite why anyone would chose to have an analogue phone in the post spinning jenny days of mobile communications is not clear. But there is a bit of concern that there are a few Americans hanging onto them for grim death. This is, of course, what they will experience if they try to make an emergency call using one after February 18.
Verizon said that the move will affect only a small percentage of people. After all, to have an analogue phone means that you have kept the thing for more than seven years. It would be bigger than Belgium and as ugly as a wildebeest with terminal acne. You will also have had to been ignoring the letters that the phone companies have been sending you warning you to upgrade.
However, it is not all about mobile phones. There are a fair few burglar alarms which are dependent on analogue systems. These will not work either. Again most security outfits have been contacting their customers to offer an update, but there must be a few people who have not heard the tom toms and will probably be surprised when they get turned over by a burglar.
More here. µ
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GM Onstar equipped vehicles were in a transition period in 2001-2003, some platforms were analog-only hardware (e.g. Suburban, Tahoe), while others were hybrid analog w/ digital upgrade support (e.g. Trailblazer, Envoy).
I'm actually from Canada, just moved to the US. I worked in the oilfield, in very remote areas.

The reason we loved analog and used it almost exclusively, is because it was the only thing that would reach us. If I'm working 5km away from the NWT, where there are only 3000 people in the nearest town, four hours away. The service provider, isn't likely to put in a shiny new digital tower every couple of km to provide us with service. With the analog service, all of the rigs in the area put on boosters, so that we at least had a minimum of service.

The problem is, like this story suggests, analog is going away. The main provider in the area started dropping towers, rather than repairing them. Which has had the unfortunate affect of isolating us until we reach an area where we can hook into our sat system for voip.

It's good in that we can no longer be bothered on that four hour drive... but bad if we need to get turned around at hour 3. Also a bad situation, in that if I drive off the road and get ravaged by a bear.... I won't be able to share the story with anyone until I limp my ass back to the rig.

Analog isn't just for owners of antique phones. The US is divided between CDMA and GSM (not much DAMPS-TDMA left), but analog was the common denominator for 800 MHz. So if you had a tri-mode CDMA phone, you could roam analog in a TDMA or GSM area, and vice-versa. A fair number of rural areas, and some urban ones, only get one carrier, and roaming is frequently at no charge, so it works transparently.

A few rural carriers will retain analog because of its superior long-range coverage.
GM cars with Onstar system older then 2002 are also affected. The upgrade path is buy a new car.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/04/onstar.html