Analog cell service to be phased out

By Ken Johnston
Editor

In this week’s Record there is a flyer from Norwest Mobility announcing that they will be phasing out analog cell phone service in the region.
However, analog users in the Rainy River District need not panic as of yet. Katie Crowe, Marketing Director with Thunder Bay Telephone, said Monday that they are going to phase out analog gradually and the Rainy River District is not on the slate for at least the rest of 2007.
“We are doing this by zone and the first one is Raith to Sioux Lookout,” said Crowe. They have four zones targeted for this year with the Rainy River area being zone number five. “We probably won’t get to your area until late this year or early next year.”
Crowe noted that the main push for the switch to completely digital comes from the fact that companies that make the communications equipment for the towers are no longer making analog gear. “We have been using the paperclips and spit thing to hold things together, but the time has come,” explained Crowe.
The other three zones will be in the Marathon, Red Lake and far east of Thunder Bay areas this year. With that in mind analog phone users will still be able to use their phones here. “Where they will run into trouble is if they enter digital only areas,” explained Crowe. Work on the phase out began yesterday in the Sioux Lookout area. “It will take about three weeks for the area to become completely analog free,” said Crowe.
However, Norwest Mobility is still offering incentive programs like the one advertised in the flyer in today’s paper for analog users to switch over to digital equipment now. “We are being proactive in getting them to switch and as the phase out date comes closer there will be more public relations out there to inform the public.”
As for the recent announcement that wireless high speed internet is now available in this area, Crowe said it will be a couple of months before any promotional packages will be offered. “Before we do that we want to be sure we have the capacity to handle any sudden large influx of customers and make sure we have all our promotion ducks in a row.”