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Big downside to Personal Calling(and OnStar in general)(long) Posted by BradW [Email]  (#3273) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from BradW) on Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:49:39
In Reply to: What is pricing on Personal Calling?, Ron Marlowe, Mon, 9 Apr 2001 20:39:51 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
As many of you are aware, the OnStar system is analog only. Analog was the original cellular system, old but reliable technology. The problem arises that cellular providers really don't want anyone to use analog service anymore. This is really a cost and capacity issue. Digital cellular(for purposes of this posting, when I refer to digital, I mean digital cellular only, and not the PCS digital service) uses a much smaller bandwidth than analog. On the same channel, a cellular carrier can have one analog call or 8 simultaneous digital calls. As digital phones proliferate, providers will be allocating more and more of their capacity to digital calls, and less will be available for analog. Simple economics. Instead of adding towers and switches, which is getting harder and harder to do because of community resistance, the existing eqiupment is modified to handle more digital calls, and the analog capacity decreases. Soon, especially in more densely populated areas, getting an analog signal will be harder and harder, and the system you are relying on to help you in an emergency may not let you make that emergency call.
Until OnStar becomes digital, I personally would not feel safe counting on being able to make that emergency call unless I had my digital cellphone either as a backup or as the primary means of 'Personal Calling'. Please don't get me wrong, I think OnStar is a neat system and I think some of the features like GPS location and remote unlocking or disabling are great. It is just that knowing what I do about the cellular industry, I know that OnStar must go digital to stay useful. I would not want OnStar to be the only way for my wife to get help in an emergency.
My $.02
BradW
, Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:49:39 <-- Viewing This Message, Tue, 10 Apr 2001 15:42:34
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