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From: dave@westmark.westmark.com (Dave Levenson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Will Digital Make Analog Cellular Phones Obsolete?
Message-ID: <74383@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 91 14:26:36 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 106, Message 8 of 11


In article <16768@accuvax.nwu.edu>, tg@chmsr.gatech.edu 
(T. Govindaraj) writes:

> I have been thinking about getting a cellular telephone and am
> wondering if current cellular phones will become obsolete and unusable
> when cellular goes digital. When are we expected to go digital? What
 ...

The next generation cellular telephones will be digital, but the
service providers don't plan to pull the plug on the five million
existing analog subscribers!  The next generation of cell site
equipment will allow digital and analog channels to co-exist, so that
digital may be deployed slowly.  New mobile and portable telephones
will support both standards, allowing their users to roam freely
between areas equipped with new and old cell site equipment.  Neither
the subscribers nor the service providers can be expected to swap
their equipment overnight.

For today, there is no digital service offered, and there are no
digital mobile sets offered.  An analog unit purchased now should
remain useable throughout its expected product lifetime.


Dave Levenson		Internet: dave@westmark.com
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