Analog cell-phone network going off air

"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."


AMPS began in 1983? I don't think so. Damn copy writers are confused
again.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/24/cellular.sunset.ap/


--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

In message <13n2jgu5lnn4i19@corp.supernews.com> Jer <gdunn@airmail.ten>
wrote:

>
>"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."
>
>
>AMPS began in 1983? I don't think so. Damn copy writers are confused
>again.
>
>http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/24/cellular.sunset.ap/

http://www.privateline.com/dailynotes/index13.html reads in part,

| October 14, 2003
|
| Commercial AMPS service turns 20 years old
|
| Sam Omastsye reports in October 13th's RCR Wireless News (external
| link, now dead) that the ceremonial first American AMPS cellular
| call was made on Oct. 13, 1983 at Soldier's Field in Chicago. AMPS had
| been working since 1978 but not in full commercial service. The October
| date marks when the general public could start using cellular. Omastsye
| quotes Scott Erickson, who attended the event, as saying Bob Barnett,
| Ameritech Mobile's president, placed the first ceremonial call. It went
| to Alexander Graham Bell's grandson in Berlin, Germany. I'm trying to
| find out if this was Edwin Grosvenor, an excellent Bell biographer.
| Chicago Cubs announcer, Jack Brickhouse, announced that first call to
| the crowd on a cold, bright day in a ceremony including balloons and a
| band.

and an excerpt from http://www.milestonespast.com/exbringing.htm

| On October 13, 1983, a small crowd gathered at Soldier Field in
| Chicago to witness history in the making. As curious onlookers watched
| and listened, Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile
| Communications, Inc., placed a call from a Chrysler convertible to the
| grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany. Their transatlantic
| conversation marked the inaugural call of the nation's first citywide
| commercial cellular system. Thirty-six years after its conception,
| cellular telephony had finally arrived in the marketplace.

http://www.birds-eye.net/definition/..._service.shtml

| AMPS was then divided among the local companies as part of the planning
| for divestiture. Illinois Bell opened the first commercial cellular system
| in October 1983.

So 1983 sounds about right.

DevilsPGD wrote:
> In message <13n2jgu5lnn4i19@corp.supernews.com> Jer <gdunn@airmail.ten>
> wrote:
>
>> "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."
>>
>>
>> AMPS began in 1983? I don't think so. Damn copy writers are confused
>> again.
>>
>> http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/24/cellular.sunset.ap/
>
> http://www.privateline.com/dailynotes/index13.html reads in part,
>
> | October 14, 2003
> |
> | Commercial AMPS service turns 20 years old
> |
> | Sam Omastsye reports in October 13th's RCR Wireless News (external
> | link, now dead) that the ceremonial first American AMPS cellular
> | call was made on Oct. 13, 1983 at Soldier's Field in Chicago. AMPS had
> | been working since 1978 but not in full commercial service. The October
> | date marks when the general public could start using cellular. Omastsye
> | quotes Scott Erickson, who attended the event, as saying Bob Barnett,
> | Ameritech Mobile's president, placed the first ceremonial call. It went
> | to Alexander Graham Bell's grandson in Berlin, Germany. I'm trying to
> | find out if this was Edwin Grosvenor, an excellent Bell biographer.
> | Chicago Cubs announcer, Jack Brickhouse, announced that first call to
> | the crowd on a cold, bright day in a ceremony including balloons and a
> | band.
>
> and an excerpt from http://www.milestonespast.com/exbringing.htm
>
> | On October 13, 1983, a small crowd gathered at Soldier Field in
> | Chicago to witness history in the making. As curious onlookers watched
> | and listened, Bob Barnett, president of Ameritech Mobile
> | Communications, Inc., placed a call from a Chrysler convertible to the
> | grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany. Their transatlantic
> | conversation marked the inaugural call of the nation's first citywide
> | commercial cellular system. Thirty-six years after its conception,
> | cellular telephony had finally arrived in the marketplace.
>
> http://www.birds-eye.net/definition/..._service.shtml
>
> | AMPS was then divided among the local companies as part of the planning
> | for divestiture. Illinois Bell opened the first commercial cellular system
> | in October 1983.
>
> So 1983 sounds about right.


Given all that, it does sound right. It's been a while, but I was
thinking '84 (in Texas) cuz that's about when I added cellular to my
IMTS implants. Apologies to the copy writers.

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

Jer wrote:
>
> "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."
>
>
> AMPS began in 1983? I don't think so. Damn copy writers are confused
> again.
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/24/cellular.sunset.ap/
>
>

Well it's actually not going off the air completely, only in areas that
have digital coverage.

On February 18th 2008, the FCC will permit carriers to turn off their
AMPS (analog) cellular networks. The large carriers that have AMPS
networks (AT&T, Verizon, and Alltel) will turn off most of their AMPS
networks soon after the mandate expires. However they are forbidden from
turning off AMPS in areas where doing so will result in a loss of
wireless coverage.

According to the FCC website, "Cellular licensees that intend to
discontinue analog service after February 18, 2008 are permitted, in
lieu of making a revised Cellular Geographic Service Area (CGSA)
showing, to file a certification stating that the discontinuance of
analog service will not result in any loss of wireless coverage
throughout an affected CGSA."

If the FCC actually enforces their own rules, this virtually guarantees
that AMPS service will remain available in areas where there is no
digital coverage. Personally I could tell the FCC many areas even in the
San Francisco Bay Area where there is only AMPS coverage, but somehow I
think that the FCC has no intention of enforcing its own rules, at least
in metro areas that happen to have extensive greenbelts where AMPS is
the only available coverage.

Operators of small rural cellular networks have already indicated that
the AMPS portion of their networks will remain intact "for the
foreseeable future." This is because it would cost them a considerable
amount of money to install enough towers to duplicate their analog
coverage. They have already overlaid digital on all their towers, but
digital requires far more towers to achieve the same coverage as AMPS.

The real question is whether Verizon, AT&T, and Alltel will comply with
the FCC rules and keep AMPS up and running in areas where there are not
sufficient digital towers to provide equivalent coverage to AMPS. It's
possible that the urban carriers that also have AMPS networks in rural
settings will just quietly leave the rural portions turned on in order
to remain in compliance, but they understandably don't want to get into
the position of saying which areas will remain on and which will be
turned off.