February 18, 2008 - Death of the Analog Cell Phone Network

Nov 23 2006

By Kurt Seifried (kurt@seifried.org)

February 18, 2008 - Why does this date matter? Because that is the day that the Analog Cellular network is supposed to be turned off in the U.S.A., completing the switch to digital networks such as GSM.

So what? Unless you’re still living in the cell phone dark ages you probably have a digital cell phone. Or do you?

Like many communications technologies cell phones started out big, bulky and insanely expensive. And then they got smaller. And cheaper. And then 7-11 and other convenience stores started selling them at some point along with candy bars and magazines. This naturally made cell phones very accessible to technology companies that needed wireless communication for their products. This allowed for a wide variety of new devices and services, ranging from GM’s OnStar to alarm systems with cell phone backups that can’t be bypassed by simply cutting the phone line before breaking in. Of course in the beginning these manufacturers used analog cell phones, and between lowering costs and widespread analog phone service they kept on using analog cell phones. Customers of course could care less what specific technology their alarm system uses, as long as it works. And why replace it if it ain’t broke?

Well like many technologies it can become obsolete, or be legally mandated out of existence. Now you think with several years warning a large alarm company like ADT would have planned for this and rolled customers over to newer systems that use digital cell phones. Well apparently they haven’t:

October 5, 2006 — ADT Security Services, Inc., a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, today filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking an extension of the analog sunset date in order to help ensure that hundreds of thousands of Americans who rely on security systems with analog cellular components are not left without primary or redundant communication to their electronic security monitoring centers.

So apparently they haven’t.

Now might be a good time to check on your alarm systems and see what kind of cell phone system they use.

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/11/20/onstar-going-silent-on-millions-of-vehicles/

http://www.adt.com/adt/displaynews/?file=/2006/2006-10-05.xml

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