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Analog Cell Phone Network Shuts Down Monday

Posted by Zonk on from the end-of-an-ear-a dept.

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."

3 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Analog has its place by ClaraBow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  2. Re:Refurbished Junk by Skater · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  3. Easier to Wiretap by kidcharles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
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