Hanging up on analog

What happened: Cell phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon shut down their analog networks today, a deadline set by Congress in 2002.

Why: The carriers want to use that part of their networks to expand digital cell phone services -- including Internet browsing and text, picture and video messaging.

TV stations will stop broadcasting analog signals under orders from Congress. The government will sell the abandoned spectrum to the highest bidder, who is expected to use it for next-generation digital devices.

Analog cell phones are history, joining the ranks of the Pony Express and the telegraph.

Wireless phone companies began powering down analog antennas -- the original technology that made consumer cell phones possible -- at the stroke of midnight Sunday night.

Cell phone providers are making more room for modern digital networks that deliver content-rich features such as Internet service and text, photo and video messaging.

The impact is limited -- only an estimated 1 million of the 250 million cell phones in the United States still use analog.

But analog's departure was a bitter transition for many rural residents who believe the old signal broadcast farther into remote areas and delivered a stronger signal deep into Sonoma County's valleys.

"It's a sad state of affairs," said George Zastrow, owner of Guerneville Graphics & Printing. "The old system was a lot better."

Zastrow isn't interested in texting, sending videos or surfing the Internet. He just wants the strongest signal possible so he can make phone calls from more places in west county -- without calls dropping. As chairman of the infrastructure committee for the Russian River Redevelopment Oversight Committee, Zastrow hears similar complaints from other people in west county.

Zastrow traded his old phone for a digital one about 18 months ago. His service provider, AT&T, began charging up to $10 more to use its analog network in hopes of pushing people to digital.

"I'm really unhappy that I had to do that," Zastrow said.

Whether or not an analog signal actually worked better for rural users is disputed.

"It's not a question of analog versus digital," said Bill Hammett, president of Sonoma-based Hammett & Edison, an engineering firm that does wireless consulting for cell phone companies.

Signal strength is determined by frequency and broadcast power, Hammett said. Both digital and analog cell phones use radio waves. The difference is how they code communications. Digital technology uses radio waves to communicate a rapidly flowing series of zeros and ones -- like a computer. An analog signal works more like the needle in a record player, decoding voices by the rising and falling of the radio wave.

"The strength of the signal is independent of the coding," Hammett said. "A radio wave is a radio wave."

But many residents of west county, who acknowledge they don't understand the technicalities, say digital has disappointed.

"The new digital phones have crappy reception," said Duane Ledward, a resident of Monte Rio. "If it is a cloudy day, there is no reception."

Ledward said he got a good signal with his analog phone, but his signal quality went down after AT&T's extra fee pushed him to join the digital network.

AT&T said it is not clear why some customers feel that way. Its digital signal is more robust, spokesman Fletcher Cook said.

Verizon spokeswoman Heidi Flato, whose company is building an antenna in the Guerne-ville and Monte Rio area, said it's possible that digital signals in general don't reach areas that former analog signals did.

"There could be some spots that analog signals existed before that digital doesn't permeate now. That's the nature of wireless," she said in an e-mail.

The signal quality might also be a reflection of people switching to digital phones with less power and smaller antennas, she said.

"Some analog users feel they had a better signal because they had the big phones with big antennas. These big analog phones can get a better signal because they are higher-power devices with large antennas," she said. "Digital handsets tend to be smaller and many have embedded antennas."

In the 1980s, analog cell phones looked like a brick with an antenna sticking out. But as digital networks became the norm a few years ago, most analog phones evolved to look similar to their digital brethren -- albeit stripped of features such as digital cameras, Internet browsers and texting.

Congress set Feb. 18 as the date carriers could discontinue analog phone service, which opens up the radio spectrum for more digital services. Next year, TV stations must stop broadcasting in analog, opening up a digital spectrum the government plans to sell to the highest bidder.

Cell phone users are not the only ones impacted by the end of analog service.

Older cars with OnStar, a roadside assistance service, lost their connection Jan. 1 when owner General Motors shut down its analog network ahead of the deadline. The action primarily impacts cars built in 2003 and earlier, although some cars built in 2004 and 2005 have analog OnStar systems.

Also, some homes with older alarm systems are tied into the analog network. These systems must be updated to work with digital networks.

You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson@pressdemocrat.com.