NEW YORK — The network that launched the U.S. wireless industry 24 years ago will switch off in most of the country next year, leaving a surprising number of users in the lurch.
Older OnStar systems for vehicles, home alarms and up to a million cellphones will lose service starting in February under a 2002 federal decision that allows carriers to switch the spectrum over from analog to digital technologies, which would use it more efficiently.
The shutdown has caught some customers by surprise, including some owners of the approximately 500,000 vehicles whose hands-free emergency OnStar service can’t be upgraded to digital.
Adele Rothman of Scarsdale, N.Y., who said she bought her teenage son a new Saab in 2003 specifically for its OnStar, had no idea the car’s system would stop working in five years. But General Motors Corp., which owns OnStar, did — and it knew the system would be impossible to upgrade, like many others of model year 2004 and older.
Rothman, who learned in March of the impending shutdown, said she might not have bought the car if she had known what GM did. When she complained, GM sent a $500 coupon toward the purchase of a new car.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Alltel Corp. are the largest carriers that still have analog networks. Alltel will take more time than Verizon and AT&T to close its network, shutting down in three stages ending in September. Each carrier will keep its portion of the newly available spectrum.
A few rural cellular providers may keep their networks up.
Plateau Wireless, which provides service in eastern New Mexico and western Texas, will maintain its analog network alongside a digital one “for the foreseeable future,” according to chief executive Tom Phelps.
Many of the company’s 75,000 customers are farmers and ranchers, and the network’s superior range helps them because it fills gaps in the digital network. The larger carriers say their digital buildout will cover any gaps left by the demise of analog service.
Commercial service on the analog network, also known as the Advanced Mobile Phone Service, or AMPS, began in 1983; it was the first time coverage areas were divided into smaller areas known as cells, a move that boosted call capacity tremendously and made the modern wireless industry possible.
Even after 2002, the analog network still had the widest range, so analog wireless functions were built into millions of devices from automated meter readers, to irrigation controls and truck-tracking systems. Devices like this are the ones that will be most affected by the shutdown, while cellphones are cheap and easy to replace.
The consumer products most affected by the analog sunset, aside from vehicles, are home alarms. The Alarm Industry Communications Committee surveyed member companies after the Federal Communications Commission’s 2002 decision and found that just under a million home- alarm systems used analog cellular to communicate with alarm centers. For most, the cellular link was a backup to a landline, but for 138,000 homes, the analog network was the only link to an alarm center.
The AICC doesn’t know how many systems have been converted since then, said Chairman Louis Fiore, but he believes 400,000 systems still use analog service, most as a backup.
“The larger (alarm) companies are in pretty good shape. There are so many smaller companies out there that are probably, I’d say, in denial. They just don’t know about it,” Fiore said.
To complicate things, some alarm systems advertised as “digital” actually use a digital subchannel of the analog network. True digital alarm system modems did not become available until 2006, according to the AICC.
According to the FCC, many analog alarms that have not been replaced by the time the network is shut down will start beeping to warn that they’ve lost the connection to the alarm center.
Rapid development in the field means a faster, better technology always lurks just around the corner tempting carriers to upgrade — raising the prospect that future digital technologies will have even shorter lifespans than the analog network.
Gizmos that’ll feel switch
How to know if you will be affected:
Cellphones. If your phone is less than five years old, or has features like texting, Internet access or a built-in camera, it’s not analog. An unknown number of analog handsets are still in use. Carriers say it’s less than 1 percent of all U.S. cellphones. But with 250 million cellphones in use, that could still mean a million phones.
Car communication systems. Generally, cars from the 2003 model year and older with OnStar from General Motors Corp., TeleAid from Mercedes-Benz or Lexus Link are affected, and most won’t be upgradable. Upgrade kits are available for most OnStar systems from model years 2004 and 2005.
Home alarms. Affected are burglar and fire alarms that use the analog network as a sole or backup link between the home and an alarm center. Generally, only homes with no wired phone service have used analog wireless service. Homes that have them will lose wireless backup alarms, which kick in if someone cuts the phone line. Alarm systems using digital wireless links became available in 2006.
