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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.
Roadside assistance. Remote entry (in case you lock your keys inside). Directions (GPS locator). Automatic 911 activation in the event of an accident. Car diagnostics. There's more.
There's a number of things the service offers that would be very useful to the average user. *shrugs* But it's worth pointing out that the $15 digital upgrade is a discounted price... the actual price is about $300, but you get it for $15 if you purchase a 1-year subscription to the OnStar service, at a cost of $400.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Non-registration link for the Chicago Tribune article.
Crap. There goes the entertainment value of my scanner that can receive 800-900 MHz.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
The main reason I disapprove of this closure is the existence of 3 watt car phones to which there was NEVER any digital replacement. These are ideal for backwoods environments. Looks like there are boosters but still it's a bit of a hassle.
I also wonder what will happen to roadside call boxes. Were these AMPS?
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
It's an iCar
Brilliant user interface, hailed as the best car ever. Inexplicably it has only one door, no reverse gear and the hood is welded shut.
The list of affected services is on a registration required site.
Here is a link from Associated Press that does not need registration.
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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.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
Try that with some of the new keys.
rewriting history since 2109
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Reasonable Person: "we have this indoor toilet, it's a convenient way to eliminate waste, but there are small water and sewer costs..."
Grishnakh: "why would I want to pay water and sewer fees associated with an indoor toilet when I can just use my outhouse?"
And regarding the key in the wallet move, most car keys nowadays have integrated fob-type plastic bulbs that do not work well on your wallet. Unless, that is, you keep your wallet in one of those manpurse fannypack fagbag things, which I suspect could be a possibility. But after reading your post, I think it more likely that you're probably just too cheap to buy a vehicle manufactured within the past 15 or 20 years and wouldn't have had to deal with the fob-type keys. So just go upstairs and look at your mom's keys, you'll see what the rest of us use.
Here we go again ladies and ladies. Strap on your aluminum boxers and hide in the basement. Mega-Corp is coming to get you again!!!
I'm so tired of hearing about all this ignorant spew about how evil all this technology is. So I'll just recap what's already been posted a hundred times about OnStar.
Despite all of these facts being repeated over and over I know that only 0.0001% of the aluminum boxer fan club will take any heed of this information. So kudo's to the one person who thinks.
Now, even though I work at GM/OnStar I should probably state that my opinions are statements are not necessarily a reflection of the opinions of GM/Onstar and as such GM/OnStar can not be held liable for anything I say, real or imagined, factual or fantasy.
So -- I can call you a jerk and get away with it. But I'm only going to call you a jerk after to slam me for working at GM/OnStar and that I'm obviously lying to keep the capitalistic pig corporations afloat despite all the evil things they do to babies and little furry animals. I only say this because I know someone will do just that in the next ten minutes. It happens every time.
Unfortunately, those who run around screaming such falsehoods do more damage for the cause of privacy and personal empowerment than they know -- for they appear as jerks and makes everyone else who says anything about privacy that much easier to dismiss.
Well... It's $200 a year for OnStar. I pay $100 a month for my cell phone, $90 a month for cable TV, $15 a month for TiVO, $15 a month for NetFlix. The question of paying about the same price for OnStar is as relevant as people who choose to purchase these other services. Suit yourself?
As for the airbag calling issue -- There have been a few cases where the unit doesn't fare too well -- but that's generally an accident of such severe nature that fatality is usually result regardless. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but is fairly safe to say that the OnStar hardware is more likely to make a call than your cell phone, even if you are able to use it and find it. Things get tossed around a lot in an accident -- personal experience.
You can pry my Zach Morris out of my cold, dead hands.
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Assuming a monthly service charge of 16.95$, over a 40 year driving period, if you saved that money at an 8% yearly yield compounded monthly, you would end up with $59,172.58
I'd be really glad to have that instead, and I could stand being locked out of my car or lost a couple of times to get it.
This is in fact not a mandatory analog shutdown, but the date that cellular phone companies are ALLOWED to decomission analog. They're required to keep analog UP until this date, not shut it down at that date. The good word from AT&T is they are shutting analog down as soon as allowed. Verizon, I've heard both that they are shutting it down ASAP and that they aren't (I'm guessing it's up to each Verizon region to decide if they do or not?). I thought US Cellular had specifically said they plan to keep analog up in some areas until at least 2012. And, local providers, they may decide if it's not broke, don't fix it.
This doesn't negate the point of the article, since many places will lose analog. But, I'm guessing some of these ultra-rural desert and forest type situations, the local provider may keep analog up, at least for a while. Ultimately, though, there's no new equipment available, and indeed I've heard service parts are low too, so it'll have to go once it's unservicable.
>(...)
> I work at GM/OnStar
Most of your points are all well and good -- I'm not in OnStar's target market, but you addressed the tinfoilers pretty nicely. But... dude... seriously. There are some ideas that didn't need to be thought up. And that was one of them. And you just thought it. Worse, you posted it publicly to a website. Now, please, please, please swear to all of us that you'll never utter that phrase, even in jest, among your co-workers. Banner ads on an automotive heads-up display is an idea so infuriatingly intrusive, dumb, and annoying that you have a moral obligation to prevent the guys in marketing from ever hearing of it, because you know goddamn well what'll happen if they do.
http://www.tonyrogers.com/news/onstar.htm now go get me my foil hat... over there... in your momma's basement :-)
--iggy_mon - www.ananonymouskiller.com - Die Trying -
I bought a Saab in 04 (?), GM had just added OnStar to the Saab line and was bundling the first year free. Saab's are built in Sweden, they do not have Onstar in Sweden. So they weren't really able to test it at the factory. IT WAS BUGGY AS HELL. The state I lived in had a lemon law which stated, that if a new car went into the shop 4 times for the same thing, it was by the state's definition "A Lemon". Well OnStar got my car labelled as a Lemon and GM had to buy it back. I got the next years model, went up a trim line and kept the same car payment. I think I used OnStar once. (In relation to this story) The primary reason that OnStar was flaking out, was b/c it was the first revision of units using the Digital Cell System vs Analog.
Where do you think I got it from?