No More Analog Cell Coverage in the U.S.

You may think of sunsets as something nice to look at, but if you have an older cell phone or a home alarm system, there’s one coming up on Monday that may not be so pretty.

That day, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will let mobile operators shut down their analog networks. It’s called the “analog sunset” because those AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) networks, which were first deployed in the 1980s and brought cellular service to millions of Americans, will finally disappear behind the digital networks that serve almost all mobile phones in use today.

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks that day. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don’t have analog networks.) Calls to some small, rural mobile operators indicated that most of them plan to shut down AMPS, too.
Washington Post

I figured this was kind of important, even though almost no one uses AMPS or TDMA anymore. Come February 18, 2008 there will be no more analog cellphone coverage in the U.S. for all intents and purposes.  However, since I kept an analog cellphone in my car for emergencies (because you could always hit an AMPS tower anywhere), I figured someone else out there might be in the same boat and want to know it won’t work, even for 911 come Monday.  Lucky for me, I have some old prepaid phones lying around to replace my venerable Nokia in my roadside emergency kit.

My other concern is for those really rural and remote areas of the country where there is no digital service, but analog exists.  Yes, they do exist unless the carriers have been extremely vigilant in the last 3 years.  I know first hand that areas south of I-10 in Louisiana and rural areas of New Mexico have no signals unless you have AMPS capable phones. 

I will not lament the loss of TDMA though.  Anyone who had Bellsouth Mobility/Cingular/AT &T Wireless in the Southern United States in the 90s knows exactly what I am referring to.  While the rest of the world was pushing modern digital networks, Bellsouth Mobility was the only one to invest in TDMA.  That meant for years, those of us stuck using that carrier had outrageous roaming charges, poor phones, and poor quality of service.

I guess everything comes to an end, and technology must push on though. Rest in Peace AMPS, and Go to wherever evil data standards go TDMA.