Since 1994, it’s been illegal in the US to sell radio scanners capable of picking up, or being readily modified to pick up, transmissions in the analog cellular band.
Is anything still be sent on these frequencies that warrants the ban on reception continuing to this day?
Yes…analog cell phones. There are numerous legacy users, multiband phones, and users you may not have thought oe. One is older OnStar equipped cars and trucks. While they are now switching to a digital phone infrastructure, there’s still millions of analog cars out there.
Also, analog cellular towers are still in use in remote areas. Analog signals are more easily amplified and, thus, can acheive greater range.
Like anything else, change is slow.
Wow. I hadn’t thought there would be so many analog units still out there. Thanks. Asked and answered.
I’ve got an analog-only cell phone! I don’t need any fancy features since it’s basically only for emergencies (I only turn it on when I want to use it, so people can’t even call me on it).
Man, there are people still using PDP-11s. The Z80, a microchip designed in 1976, still makes money for Zilog even if it’s only used in embedded systems instead of desktop computers. And, of course, there are great masses of people who see no reason to switch from Windows 95 or even MS-DOS.
My point is that change is slow when it costs money and even when it doesn’t.
Heh - I was just looking for a PDP-11 on eBay.
In defense of my faulty presumption, hanging onto old technology isn’t the same thing as hanging onto old services. I’m not surprised that people still hang onto and are making good use of these things. I’m surprised that cell companies still offer analog plans (where digital infrastructure exists, anyway).
Doesn’t most of their profit come from text messages and other data services only available on 2G+ networks? It seems like the cost of maintaining an analog network would outweigh its potential income
They have a FCC mandate to maintain the analog network for a few more years.