Analog Cell Phone Network Shuts Down Monday

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "AT&T and Verizon will be shutting down their old, analog AMPS networks next Monday, and AT&T will also turn off its old TDMA network, with smaller providers expected to follow thanks to a sunset date set by the FCC. After these old networks are shut down, the networks will be all digital. Of course, if you have one of those old fashioned 'just a phone' cellphones and it happens to be analog, you'd best enjoy the last few days before it becomes useless."

Comments

Analog has its place

[ClaraBow]

I think that there are still areas that benefit from having analog signal, especially rural area. So isn't there any benefits of keep a least one analog network alive? I'm jut curious.

Re:Analog has its place

[DMCBOSTON]

I can take mine into jury duty because it's old. No camera, no need to leave it in an unsecure location (like the car). So I guess I'm screwed.

What about the "forbidden" bands?

[mangu]

I have a radio that scans from 30 MHz to 1.3 GHz, except for the analog cell phone frequencies. I suppose there will be no objection for selling radios that scan all the frequencies now, right?

Not that there would be anything interesting in those frequencies now, but it always bothered me in a way that my radio had holes in its coverage.

Re:And good riddance.

[Qzukk]

Poorly maintained, bad coverage, iffy signal, rotten roaming (and occasional charges)

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Okay, I don't believe in imaginary submitters

[MrPerfekt]

Honestly, 1-3 times a day there's a story approved from I Don't Believe In Imaginary Property. Thankfully, unlike Beatles Beatles Beatles, he's not using his URL to boost his search engine results but it does beg a question, how does that happen? Or are other submitters just submitting crap lately?

No reasoning behind this, just curious.

Re:Refurbished Junk

[Skater]

3rd world Grandmas are probably using digital networks. The odd thing is that a lot of 3rd world countries that didn't have phone service at all got digital wireless phone service because it's relatively cheap to build out, while the US (for example) was slower to adopt wireless service because we had landlines.

But analog phones - ugh. I remember the three hours of standby battery life, and 30 minutes of talk time, or having a phone the size of a brick. My first two cell phones were dual-mode or tri-mode; they'd work on analog networks as well as digital, and I remember that if it had to use the analog network, the battery life would drop from a day or two to hours.

Easier to Wiretap

[kidcharles]

AT&T and Verizon, huh? They probably just want to phase out analog because it is easier to store digital phone calls to sell to the government.