pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| Is Analog Still Required Out West?
I did one cross country trip between 12/2003 and 01/2004 and found that with Cingular, i was SOL without analog when i was in the middle of nowhere in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Texas and Arkansas (I had a GAIT phone at the time).
The most recent trip I did (back in 05/2006) found that I at least had GPRS coverage in most of the above areas. I still had a few outright dead areas in southern TX and northwest Arizona.
It seems that there has been an improvement in digital coverage in these areas. Do people who live there think that analog is still needed?
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Tancredo 2008! |
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cgar
join:2006-06-26
Lewis Center, OH | I have a Sony Ericson dual mode phone both digital & analog. It is about 5 years old, any idea if I will be hit with the fees also? Most calls are digital but some are still analog when I am not near a big city. |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
·Comcast
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102  :It seems that there has been an improvement in digital coverage in these areas. Do people who live there think that analog is still needed? I don't know about that area but I can tell you that GSM is becoming more prevalent in rural areas.
Last year I was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There was almost no coverage in the eastern 2/3rds of the UP. This year I noticed much better availability. It seems that a lot of the older networks (both TDMA and AMPS) are being converted to GSM (at 850MHz).
Now not every place had service but I expect it to keep getting better with time. The UP actually had pretty good TDMA coverage back in the day when I had a TDMA phone.
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Correlation does not imply causation. |
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swilliams
join:1999-09-07
Mount Prospect, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to cgar
I have the exact same problem. Although I'm a Sprint user and not (yet) subjected to any analog fees, I too travel into areas that do not have any digital service. And since I'm on my motorcycle when I'm in these analog only areas, I need some sort of service in the event of an emergency. I don't care if it's $10 a minute, if I have a flat or a bike break down, I need service. Thus, I carry a tri mode phone and can never leave Sprint for T-Mobile or US Cellular or any of the digital only carriers. At least not until the entire analog service all over the country is converted to some flavor of digital.
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You can't walk a straight line girl... if you're wearin crooked shoes |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by swilliams :And since I'm on my motorcycle when I'm in these analog only areas, I need some sort of service in the event of an emergency. I don't care if it's $10 a minute, if I have a flat or a bike break down, I need service. I'm not so sure about Sprint, but when I had a tri-mode (GAIT) phone with Cingular, I was actually roaming on Verizon's analog network out west, and had I wanted to make any calls, I was told by a recording that I would need to provide credit card information to the operator. So it might have come out to $10 a minute 
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Tancredo 2008! |
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Ammler
Premium
join:2005-04-19
Pittsburgh, PA
| reply to cgar
I don't think your phone will be subject to the $5 Fine Fee.
I think this will only apply to people who still have old "analog only" phones.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
I too have a tri-mode phone with Verizon that I do not want to give up for a digital only. |
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swilliams
join:1999-09-07
Mount Prospect, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| said by Ammler :I don't think your phone will be subject to the $5 Fine Fee. I think this will only apply to people who still have old "analog only" phones. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. I too have a tri-mode phone with Verizon that I do not want to give up for a digital only. Correct as I understand it. It's the people that have the ancient analog only phones that are affected by this. I'm not concerned with getting charged simply because I carry a phone that can access outdated analog service.
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You can't walk a straight line girl... if you're wearin crooked shoes |
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Unregistered User
@69.244.x.x | reply to Ammler
Incorrect. Whoever posted this originally got it wrong. This fee will affect anyone using the TDMA network. TDMA is a digital technology. Cingular had used it in most of their markets until they switched to GSM. |
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Unregistered User
@69.244.x.x | reply to swilliams
I don't mean to post this all over the place, but I need to correct this misconception. This fee will apply to anyone using the old TDMA network, not just analog. It just so happens that TDMA phones have analog capability as well as TDMA. |
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pepe7
join:2003-08-25 | reply to pnh102
Covering that much ground of the U.S. you certainly would want to have analog service as a backup. There are still some very significant holes and very large areas w/o good GSM service if at all. Especially if you go off the interstate system. |
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