Post-Analog: What is the plan for Sprint?

After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely large
foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on digital
roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will certainly
need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise there will be
too much of a gap on their service maps.

I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since that
is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of analog.

What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?

-mij

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"Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:qQxDe.377$bp.209@fed1read03...
> After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
> Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely
large
> foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on
digital
> roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will certainly
> need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise there will be
> too much of a gap on their service maps.
>
> I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since
that
> is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of analog.
>
> What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?
>
> -mij

You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless telcos
have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.

Bob

Bob Smith wrote:

> You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
> major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless telcos
> have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.

Regardless, if Sprint gives a rat's ass about their customers, they'll start
inking more CDMA digital roaming agreements.

Analog is completely insecure, and with the current administration in the
White House wanting to give law enforcement the ability to do almost
anything they want to without a warrant or probable cause, I don't want to
use AMPS anymore. At all.

Shifting completely to CDMA won't totally prevent "We're from the
government, we're here to help" lackeys from being able to snoop on you, any
more than even the fanciest, most expensive car alarm will keep the most
determined professional burglars from stealing your car. What it WILL do is
make it more expensive and more of a hassle for them or anyone else to
eavesdrop on your cellular conversations.

It's all about security and privacy.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Bob Smith wrote:
>
> > You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
> > major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless
telcos
> > have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.
>
> Regardless, if Sprint gives a rat's ass about their customers, they'll
start
> inking more CDMA digital roaming agreements.
>
> Analog is completely insecure, and with the current administration in the
> White House wanting to give law enforcement the ability to do almost
> anything they want to without a warrant or probable cause, I don't want to
> use AMPS anymore. At all.
>
> Shifting completely to CDMA won't totally prevent "We're from the
> government, we're here to help" lackeys from being able to snoop on you,
any
> more than even the fanciest, most expensive car alarm will keep the most
> determined professional burglars from stealing your car. What it WILL do
is
> make it more expensive and more of a hassle for them or anyone else to
> eavesdrop on your cellular conversations.
>
> It's all about security and privacy.

Sure it is, and I'm sure that it's SPCS's intent to sign up with as many
digital roaming partners as possible. In saying that, there are still areas
in the boonies that no one has digital coverage.

Bob

Yes, that is correct, however, CDMA, GSM, or any other digital transmission
will prevent the geek kid that lives down the street from eavesdropping on
your conversation with a modified police scanner. I never give out credit
card numbers of any personal information on an analog connection for this
reason. Note that this rule also applies to analog cordless telephones.

-mij


"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Bob Smith wrote:
>
>> You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
>> major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless
>> telcos
>> have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.
>
> Regardless, if Sprint gives a rat's ass about their customers, they'll
> start inking more CDMA digital roaming agreements.
>
> Analog is completely insecure, and with the current administration in the
> White House wanting to give law enforcement the ability to do almost
> anything they want to without a warrant or probable cause, I don't want to
> use AMPS anymore. At all.
>
> Shifting completely to CDMA won't totally prevent "We're from the
> government, we're here to help" lackeys from being able to snoop on you,
> any more than even the fanciest, most expensive car alarm will keep the
> most determined professional burglars from stealing your car. What it WILL
> do is make it more expensive and more of a hassle for them or anyone else
> to eavesdrop on your cellular conversations.
>
> It's all about security and privacy.
>
> --
> Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
> Company website: http://JustThe.net/
> Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
> E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Analog will go away as soon as the FCC allows cellular carriers to turn it
off. I have heard that this will occur within the next several years. In
this case, OnStar will also have problems since they use analog only service
and probably get very good rates from the cell carriers for doing so.

-mij



"Bob Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:qQxDe.377$bp.209@fed1read03...
>> After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
>> Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely
> large
>> foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on
> digital
>> roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will certainly
>> need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise there will
>> be
>> too much of a gap on their service maps.
>>
>> I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since
> that
>> is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of analog.
>>
>> What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?
>>
>> -mij
>
> You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
> major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless
> telcos
> have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.
>
> Bob
>
>

Paul Miner wrote:

> If you're talking about Government monitoring, then it makes
> absolutely no difference whatsoever whether the radio portion of the
> network is analog, digital, CDMA, TDMA, GSM, or any of the other
> standards because they have their taps located AFTER all of that, in
> the regular TCP/IP portion of the network. OTOH, if you meant any old
> Joe Blow being able to listen in, then yes, analog is less secure
> because anyone with a scanner that's able to receive those frequencies
> will be able to listen in. They're not supposed to, of course, but
> that's another story entirely.

As I mentioned, CDMA encryption is not a panacea. Plus, law enforcement can
get a warrant and force the landline and cellular carriers to install a tap
within the POTS or cellular network. But *legal* wiretaps aren't really my
concern. My concern is with wiretaps where the government pulls a stunt like
invoking the Patriot Act or something like that, where (legally) the wiretap
is in a gray area and they're trying to pull my conversation off the airwaves.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> Analog will go away as soon as the FCC allows cellular carriers to turn it
> off. I have heard that this will occur within the next several years. In
> this case, OnStar will also have problems since they use analog only service

No longer true.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Almost everywhere there is cellular there is both A and B analog
carriers, and usually at least one of those is now also CDMA. Most
Sprint PCS phone can roam CDMA cellular. However I am still of the
opinion that most Sprint PCS customers do not need to roam.


Mij Adyaw wrote:
> After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
> Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely large
> foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on digital
> roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will certainly
> need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise there will be
> too much of a gap on their service maps.
>
> I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since that
> is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of analog.
>
> What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?
>
> -mij
>
>
>
>

If you look at both Sprint PCS' and verizon's web site, you will see
there are very, very, few areas where there is only analog. Almost all
cellular carriers have overlaid their analog service with either CDMA or
gsm.


Bob Smith wrote:
> "Mij Adyaw" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:qQxDe.377$bp.209@fed1read03...
>
>>After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
>>Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely
>
> large
>
>>foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on
>
> digital
>
>>roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will certainly
>>need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise there will be
>>too much of a gap on their service maps.
>>
>>I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since
>
> that
>
>>is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of analog.
>>
>>What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?
>>
>>-mij
>
>
> You make it sound like analog is going away tomorrow. It still serves a
> major service for those small markets where none of the big wireless telcos
> have any service and analog will be here for quite some time.
>
> Bob
>
>

Jerome Zelinske wrote:
> If you look at both Sprint PCS' and verizon's web site, you will see
> there are very, very, few areas where there is only analog. Almost all
> cellular carriers have overlaid their analog service with either CDMA or
> gsm.

If you look at Sprint's website, you won't see any analog.

I believe Verizon has CDMA everywhere now and has for some time. They do
additionally have AMPS in some of their legacy markets.


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Why are you of the opinion that most SprintPCS customers do not need to
roam?


"Jerome Zelinske" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Almost everywhere there is cellular there is both A and B analog carriers,
> and usually at least one of those is now also CDMA. Most Sprint PCS phone
> can roam CDMA cellular. However I am still of the opinion that most
> Sprint PCS customers do not need to roam.
>
>
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>> After the final switch is turned-off for analog cellular in the United
>> Stated, what will happen to Sprint? Sprint does not have an extremely
>> large foot-print for native service and therefore it will need to rely on
>> digital roaming on Verizon and other Digital CDMA carriers. Sprint will
>> certainly need to negotiate good digital roaming agreements, otherwise
>> there will be too much of a gap on their service maps.
>>
>> I wonder if new phones in the future will offer both CDMA and GSM since
>> that is all that will be left in the United States after the demise of
>> analog.
>>
>> What do you all think? What will the future bring for Sprint?
>>
>> -mij
>>
>>
>>

Looking at Sprint PCS' web site for Wisc. will show some analog
roaming, not a lot, even some no service areas. I have not really
looked around for it, but I remember verizon had some analog areas in
Oregon.


Steve Sobol wrote:
> Jerome Zelinske wrote:
>
>> If you look at both Sprint PCS' and verizon's web site, you will
>> see there are very, very, few areas where there is only analog.
>> Almost all cellular carriers have overlaid their analog service with
>> either CDMA or gsm.
>
>
> If you look at Sprint's website, you won't see any analog.
>
> I believe Verizon has CDMA everywhere now and has for some time. They do
> additionally have AMPS in some of their legacy markets.
>
>

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> Why are you of the opinion that most SprintPCS customers do not need to
> roam?

If it was such a big deal for a large number of Sprint customers, Sprint
would probably offer better roaming options. The "America" addon isn't a bad
idea, but it can be restrictive for people who travel extensively and end up
off Sprint's network often.


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Jerome Zelinske wrote:
> Looking at Sprint PCS' web site for Wisc. will show some analog
> roaming, not a lot, even some no service areas. I have not really
> looked around for it, but I remember verizon had some analog areas in
> Oregon.

When I said you won't see any analog, I meant you won't see any *native* analog.

Most of that AMPS roaming *should* be CDMA by now. I don't know how much of
it is.

Regarding Oregon, Google for Dan Albrich's posts in alt.cellular.verizon.
According to his experiences, Verizon's coverage in parts of Oregon is horrible.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: [email protected] Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307