Analog Cellphones Are (Mostly) Dead

The lovely-sounding “analog sunset” — the day that the government allows phone companies to shut down their analog networks—is today.

From InfoWorld:

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks that day. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don’t have analog networks.) Calls to some small, rural mobile operators indicated that most of them plan to shut down AMPS, too.

There aren’t many mobile phones out there that will go dark after the analog sunset, according to the big carriers, which have been warning subscribers about the change for months and offering them incentives to switch over.

“We’re talking about a very, very small number of customers here,” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.

We have gotten a few complaints from people who prefer analog cellphones and have held on to them despite the fact that they knew this day would eventually come. We’ll probably get some more. Hi ho.

Anyone want to start a band with me called “Analog Sunset?” We could like, rock.

Most analog cellular to fade away on Monday [InfoWorld]
(Photo:Tubes.)

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