"Dennis Ferguson" <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:slrnesk9cf.8p.dcferguson@akit-ferguson.com...
> Note that to make money from this service they need to have more than
> a little bit of use. Just having those towers costs money. There's a
> power bill to pay, they need to pay for tower rental or taxes on the land
> it is constructed on, and they need to spend a bit on maintaining
> both the physical infrastructure (so the tower doesn't fall on someone
> or cause a fire) and the electronics for both the cell and the backhaul
> network connecting it to the PSTN. The cost of repairing or replacing
> old electronics continually increases, so at some point they'd need to
> pay for new investment to keep the cost of continuing maintenance
> reasonable. Also, the coverage in rural areas with only AMPS is seldom
> "complete" any more because the tower spacing is designed for
> significantly
> higher power handsets than are now available for purchase.

> There's no shortage of spectrum in rural areas, digital service would
> improve (though probably not entirely fix) the coverage situation with
> low power handsets, and modern electronics would help with maintenance
> costs. The fact that they've not made this investment in some places
> should suggest that the business prospects may not be that rosy.
>
> Dennis Ferguson

Dennis here is an example of people still using AMPS bag phone for rural
farming applications. The bag phones have higher power and range than
digital handheld units. There are lots of farmers who use this to monitor
pivot irrigation systems. Sometimes we are so focused on our own personal
situation that we fail to understand that others are still finding use for
an older technology that, in this case, works better than the newer.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/doc...37&id=cellular

Don