Analog Cellular Shutdown To Hit Built-In Devices

Nick Kilkenny sends us an AP article on the imminent shutdown of the US analog cellular network, now 24 years old. The network is scheduled to go dark on Feb. 18, 2008; some users, such as OnStar, are stopping analog service at the end of this year. Here's a list of devices and industries that will be affected by the shutdown. (Cellular telephony won't be affected much.) "The shutdown date has been known years in advance, but some industries appear to have a had a problem updating their technologies and informing their customers in advance... General Motors Corp., which owns OnStar, started modifying its cars after the 2002 decision by the Federal Communications Commission to let the network die, but some cars made as late as 2005 can't use digital networks for OnStar, nor can they be upgraded. For some cars made in the intervening years, GM provides digital upgrades for $15." Update: 12/22 22:25 GMT by KD : Replaced two registration-required links.

Comments

Not only OnStar

[kent_eh]

When my employer (a cell company who shall not be named) killed off our analog system we sent out notices to all analog subscribers over a year in advance.
And 6 months in advance.
And each month for the last 3 months.
2 weeks before shutdown one customer, an alarm company, threatened to sue us to keep it on the air because they hadn't had enough advance warning to get their customers' installations upgraded.

Apparently they didn't believe we would actually do it.

And, yes it is worth shutting it down. The power savings alone were significant. Rack space and floor space as well.
It also freed up a lot of spectrum for re-deployment for high speed data and other stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about yet.