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Monday, February 18, 2008
I can still remember my first “pocket” cellular phone after graduating from my car phone. Nope, it wasn’t the Motorola DynaTac but rather the MicroTAC 550. About a year after that phone, I upgraded to the thinner MicroTAC Elite (pictured) which used the same batteries as the 550. I was in heaven. What a glorious phone that was. Loud, clear, and as if you were on a land line phone. To this day, I still have yet to hear a phone call as good as it was on this phone. The primary reason for the great sound was because the connection was analog as opposed to todays digital systems such as GSM (used by AT&T and T-Mobile here in the States.) Most have been moved off the analog system known as AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) in the last eight years. Pac Bell PCS, here in California, was one of the first digital carriers (using GSM) and AT&T Wireless (as opposed to the modern plain AT&T which was purchased by SBC) soon followed with it’s TDMA digital network. Verizon opted for CDMA and still uses the mostly US only network today. Sprint and T-Mobile never had analog networks.
With AT&T and Verizon the only two carriers with AMPS customers (remember only having two choices in the old days?), both have reported that less than a percent are still on the service and there shouldn’t be any real issue when the federal government requires all operation of this band be terminated as of today. Truth is, there will be a problem for some 850,000 alarm customers according to the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC). With many alarm systems using cellular connections for its secondary calling method to notify alarm centers, a vast amount of those systems rely on the AMPS system. Alarm devices installed in the last three years have had digital cellular modems installed; however, some customers in areas that could not receive a strong GSM signal received AMPS installs. Only high-end alarms had CDMA as an alternative choice. Couple that with all the older systems installed and you have a potential for some angry customers today. While many alarm companies have upgraded the modems to the digital protocol, it is estimated that nearly 400,000 may have not even been notified of the change.
If you have an alarm system with back-up cellular communication or an older phone that you are unsure about, contact your provider immediately. Many “glove box” users, those with a cell phone in their glove box and use it only for 911 calls, may not even realize their device will no longer work. For cell phone users, a good tip as to if your phone is not analog is if it has a color screen. If it does, it is most likely digital. If it’s monochrome (black and white) then it may be an analog phone. If it has an LED display (like that pictured), then it is for sure analog!
Welcome to the new millennium.