Analog cell-phone network going off air

Well there has been plenty of time and warning

 

I am glad to see it go around here. More room for digital channels, less congestion. I hope!

 

Here is another article on it

Gadgets affected by analog shutdown
AP News

Carriers will start shutting down the country's oldest cellular network, for analog devices, in February. How to know if you will be affected:

Cell phones. If your phone is less than five years old, or has features like texting, Internet access or a built-in camera, it's not analog. An unknown number of analog handsets are still in use. Carriers say it's less than 1 percent of all U.S. cell phones. But with 250 million cell phones in use, that could still mean a million phones.

In particular, check phones that are kept around as 911-only phones. Such phones, which don't have a phone number and aren't initialized with a carrier, were given out by some donation programs that collected old phones.

The main carriers with analog service are AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Alltel. Carriers have been telling analog customers about the shutdown and offering them new digital service plans and phones. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA have no analog networks.

Separately from the analog shutdown, Alltel and AT&T will finish phasing out networks that use a first-generation digital technology known as D-AMPS or TDMA (for Time Division Multiple Access). This affects only cell phones — and only older ones. AT&T and its predecessor companies have been phasing out TDMA since 2001.

_ Car communication systems. Generally, cars from the 2003 model year and older with OnStar from General Motors Corp., TeleAid from Mercedes-Benz or Lexus Link are affected, and most won't be upgradable. Upgrade kits are available for most OnStar systems from model years 2004 and 2005.

Class action lawsuits, consolidated in federal court in Detroit, are seeking compensation for the lowered value of the more than 500,000 affected cars with OnStar plus about 200,000 with other systems.

Home alarms. Affected are burglar and fire alarms that use the analog network as a sole or backup link between the home and an alarm center. Generally, only homes with no wired phone service have used analog wireless service. Homes that have them will lose wireless backup alarms, which kick in if someone cuts the phone line. Alarm systems using digital wireless links became available in 2006.

USA to Start Analog Shutdown Next Year

 

they've had plenty of warning... good riddance analog!

 

They should have said NOT analog ONLY. Lots of recent phones have analog and digital.

 

I won't miss it. I haven't used analog in at least 5 years.

-Jay

 

I still carry a TDMA / Analog phone because I have to maintain that system till March. I was working on an outage over in our former CDMA area that only has analog running now. I had to use my TDMA phone which naturally went to Analog, I had full bars but the static was aweful and sounded like a was calling overseas on a under water cable. Not to mentioned after about 5 minutes my ear got warm and with it plugged in its still went dead. I will be glad when its gone.

 

Analog allows the rural user the option to establish service. The distance a call can be established with an analog signal is only really limited to the equipment the user has, not the hard distance limited the cell company has applied to the digital signal.
The fact is LOTS of rural users are going to loose service, people with tri-mode phones as well as bag phone users with huge antennas.
People are going to die because they cant set up a call due to being outside the radius limit of a digital tower.
Where its going to be missed most is on boats. Radius limits are fairly low in highly populated areas, 1-5 miles. And sense most of the boaters are off the shores of big citys they rely on analog for cellular.
Its going to be big problems. for the city slicker, no. For the outdoorsman, yes...

 

So what is your TDMA phone? I'm guessing you have a TDMA Motorola V60. I remember my old TDMA StarTac had a lot of network based programable features as well. I remember I used to force the StarTac into analog mode when in low signal areas to prevent the call from dropping out. It was very staticy when I did it, but the calls didn't drop.

-Jay

 

Its a Nokia but I dont remember the model number, its charcoal gray and the buttons are at a diagonal. I had 2 two TDMA phones back in the day, the small Nokia for voice and I had a 6100 series that could be put into analog mode and tethered for data at a whopping 16kbits. We had to use it for telnet. The Nokia I have cant be put into analog manually but its a field test phone.

One thing I miss on TDMA vs GSM is the ability to put the phone in field test just by typing a code.

I dont remember the model numer but we used to have the gray Motorolas flip that just covers the keys with extendable antenna and we had the 3 watt kits mounted in the trucks.

 

That sounds like the Motorola MicroTac...

-Jay

 

Is there a way to determine if analog will be turned off in my area?

 

Who is your carrier and where do you live? Chances are though that analog will be gone sometime next year.

-Jay

 

Verizon and I live in TN but use analog in SE KY

 

Verizon will probably be shutting down analog, but not as rapidly as AT&T plans to. As it stands right now I think AT&T will probably be the first to completely shut down their analog network as soon as the deadline passes. There may be some small regional carriers around that may keep up analog in those areas though.

-Jay

 

Thank You

 

Rural users should not panic, in many cases there will be some type of replacement service available. Analog is using up valuable channel space that could be allocated to more users.

 

I would imagine that any analog only sites would be upgraded to a newer standard before the analog is shut down.

-Jay

 

In this area Verizon roams in SE KY, however, they purchased Ramcell and are in the process of switching over to CDMA. The press release said that the service would be switched in the 1st quarter of 2008. I am worried that we will lose service prior to the conversion.

 

Do you know where the tower is that covers your area?

 

The name of the town they are located in is Middlesboro KY 40965. No one seems to know anything about the conversion date.

 

AND; how far is that tower from your location, by line of sight?

 

10 miles, maybe 15 at the most

 

That is marginal even for analog for everyday use. Does that work at and inside your house? If so there may be a closer cell.

 

I live on the KY/TN/VA line, where I am located is digital. I am 10 miles from KY, when I am there is when the service switches to analog. KY is where we shop, work, etc. that is why it's so important to us. If they kill analog and the conversion of Ramcell towers to CDMA hasn't happened we will be without. ATT & T has service everywhere no problem, but I am locked into a contract with VZ. I would have left VZ but they kept promising that they would offer service in KY, they did buy the rural carrier but not sure when they are going to be active.

 

If Verizon shuts off analog you can almost count on digital replacing it. And if you are not satisfied then you should not have a big problem getting out of your contract. Someday all service will be digital only.

 

Many of the mountain top towers in rural California and Nevada have large ranges. 22miles max gsm 30-40 miles cdma and 50-75 miles analog. cdma can do over 75 but is usually limited to under 35 to manage capacity.
In my travels it appears the Verizon generally limits their cdma signal to around 20 miles.

We have one work site that is 36 miles form an Alltel tower where the phones work perfect, of course that is line of site in the desert. It does work in the buildings but barely.

BTW, there is an fcc law that requires the carriers not to lose any service, but 'wasteland' is exempt.

 

Did you notice I underlined everyday use?
. In 1969 Neil Armstron and Buzz Aldren transmitted from the moon on 10 watts. Line of sight.

Todays cellular hand sets can get bars (signal) from far away, line of sight, but except under ideal conditicns do not have the power to get back to a tower that is far away.

In the 1970's I had a IMTS (pre cellular) mobile car phone with a 30 pound trunk unit, that worked well around Philadelphia, hitting the PSFS bank building antenna in center city where the only tower was located. There were also polling receivers in the suburbs. If I was in a high area far from Philly, I could get a Philly channel in areas that would not normally work on the Philly 450 mhz tower. Like Mount Penn in Reading Pa. Same concept today.. By the way I was putting out at least 25 watts with a gain antenna.

Happy 08

 

What frequencies did they use and in 1969 what was the RF noise floor on that band? Modern day PCS/Cellular is a whole different ballgame than the moon.