Begining of the end.

I received this today and while not CDMA it does have some significance. I
have removed the names to protect those still employed.

From: XXXXXXXXX
Subject: FW: Final Analog Call - March 5, 2008
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 09:25:45


Team,

Yesterday ATT decommissioned their AMPS/TDMA network for good. I had
the distinct honor of placing the last AMPS call. I was invited by
the ATT team in Boca Raton to participate in this historical event. A
conference bridge was brought up to host the participants using the
good ole Motorola Ultra-Classic. Some of the new engineers on the
bridge had not heard the Snap, Crackle, and Pop familiar to Analog
interference... so we obliged. We first dropped VMAC a step at a time
to the maximum setting of 7. This did not produce the desired affect
so I resorted to a more primitive method by slowly unscrewing the
antenna; and there it was: Snap, Crackle, and Pop for everyone to
enjoy one last time.

After the call, the last site was put back into the Growth state
closing another chapter of the ever changing cellular industry.

Regards,
XXX



--
--
Coffee worth staying up for - NY Times
www.moondoggiecoffee.com

On Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:51:34 GMT, "The Other Funk"
<bobbie@moondoggie.com> wrote:

>I received this today and while not CDMA it does have some significance. I
>have removed the names to protect those still employed.

If this is indeed true, it was interesting that there were enough
people to "care" to bid analog a fond farewell.

It reminds me of the last N2 carrier in the CONUS that was turned down
last summer between Duluth, MN and the tiny town of Wawina, MN. They
cared enough to set up a voice mail system so people could give their
last respects for the system.

For some, they're glad to see the old days go away. For others, it is
a sad day. I'm a member of the latter statement.

Dave

Diamond Dave <dmine45AT@yahooDOT.com> wrote in
news:ebuav3he9qguu8uel1rcr003bek4u4i86d@4ax.com:

> For some, they're glad to see the old days go away. For others, it is
> a sad day. I'm a member of the latter statement.
>
> Dave
>
>
>

Me, too, Dave. I came from IMTS to AMPS when it was new.

When Miami Radio WOM went off the air, after providing marine radio service
for decades to ships at sea, it was a sad day, too. I dug out a key and
sent a few memorial messages through the ops on WOM who had assembled for
the event. I still have their glow-in-the-dark freq/schedule stuck to the
fridge in the computer shack they gave me.

At least it will make a glut of nice AMPS phones for the people in the
country who still depend on having a real transmitter for the long haul
between cells in the boonies.

I wonder if Verizon had a similar farewell for their AMPS network. I was
part of the Analog Death Watch on the Verizon section of HowardForums, but
I did not hear of any decomissioning party on the Verizon front.

Argumably, TDMA isn't strictly dead; it evolved into GSM. The thing that
died with analog on AT&T's network is simply an older version. This type
of evolutionary change is what we are likely to see in the future.
Although UMTS is the 3G version of GSM it incorporates CDMA technology,
and it's increasingly looking like 4G will converge on LTE.

Such evolutionary convergence will undoubtably disappoint fanboys, who are
unhappy unless they can claim to have been advocates of a "winning"
technology that defeats an "inferior" (at least to the fanboy mind)
alternative. But the customer base will benefit.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

> Such evolutionary convergence will undoubtably disappoint fanboys, who are
> unhappy unless they can claim to have been advocates of a "winning"
> technology that defeats an "inferior" (at least to the fanboy mind)
> alternative. But the customer base will benefit.

No, then they just squabble over the phones themselves. Nitwits.