Upgrade Phone without Change Plan. Former AT&T WS User.

Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:

> Also, as I indicated, there are agreements with various consumers of AMPS,
> that I suspect go beyond 2008 [which is the end of the AMPS mandate if I am
> not mistaken]. Vast areas of Northern MN, WI, MI and others are ONLY coverred
> by AMPS. Further, they are covered by mostly independent tower operators or
> smaller regional players [i.e Cellular One]. As long as they receive roaming
> revenue from existing infrastructure, I am not sure that these rural operators
> will benefit from going digital as that would require multipe towers where
> there once was one and promise no significant return on investment. What may
> finally get these to go will be the lack of handsets that even have AMPS
> capability.

I'm sure that AMPS will go away where digital exists. But I don't see
the upside in getting rid of all the rural AMPS, even for Verizon. They
just have to dedicate a minimal amount of spectrum for it, as it's
lightly used, but it'd be a shame to lose all that coverage.

Yesterday I was going to the beach, across the Santa Cruz mountains to
the San Mateo coast, where you have no CDMA, no TDMA, and no GSM for
much of the area. We did want to make a call to tell someone who was
coming over that we'd be home late, and it came in handy to have
coverage, even though it was not a real emergency. At the beach itself
(San Gregorio) I had good CDMA coverage, which surprised me because it
worked even on the part of the beach where you're down below a very high
cliff.

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› See More: Upgrade Phone without Change Plan. Former AT&T WS User.

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:41:35 -0500, "Thomas T. Veldhouse"
<[email protected]> wrote in
<[email protected]>:

>In alt.cellular.cingular John Navas <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> OnStar is already going digital, and thus won't be a factor. I doubt
>> that any others will be significant factors either. My bet is that AMPS
>> will go away rapidly after the mandate expires. Spectrum is scarce and
>> expensive, and AMPS demand is already very low, so carriers have a
>> strong incentive to rapidly redeploy the spectrum.
>
>Yes, OnStar is going digital ... but there are MANY AMPS only deployments.
>Verizon Wireless gets the business on newer deployments ;-)

<http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/explore/onstar_basics/helpful_info.jsp?info-view=tech_equip>

... beginning January 1, 2008, OnStar services in the U.S. and Canada
will only be available through dual-mode (analog/digital) equipment.

If your vehicle has analog-only equipment, however, you will not be
able to upgrade the equipment nor will your vehicle be able to
receive OnStar service as of January 1, 2008.

>Also, as I indicated, there are agreements with various consumers of AMPS,
>that I suspect go beyond 2008 [which is the end of the AMPS mandate if I am
>not mistaken].

I doubt it.

>Vast areas of Northern MN, WI, MI and others are ONLY coverred
>by AMPS. Further, they are covered by mostly independent tower operators or
>smaller regional players [i.e Cellular One]. As long as they receive roaming
>revenue from existing infrastructure, I am not sure that these rural operators
>will benefit from going digital as that would require multipe towers where
>there once was one and promise no significant return on investment.

AMPS roaming revenues are rapidly going away. Spectrum is scarce and
expensive, and AMPS demand is already very low, so carriers have a
strong incentive to rapidly redeploy the spectrum to digital.

>What may
>finally get these to go will be the lack of handsets that even have AMPS
>capability.

That's another factor even now.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:03:13 -0700, SMS <[email protected]>
wrote in <[email protected]>:

>Yesterday I was going to the beach, across the Santa Cruz mountains to
>the San Mateo coast, where you have no CDMA, no TDMA, and no GSM for
>much of the area.

GSM coverage is actually good in that area with a multi-band phone. You
must still be using that old 1900-only GSM phone.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>