Older cell phones dying

[Nancy]

We have two Tracfones that have microphones that no longer work.

Fred's failed first. When he went to WalMart to replace it they told him the older phones are no longer compatible with newer cell towers.

Just posting in case this is a new topic and others are wondering why their phones no longer work.

We were able to transfer our time and kept the same phone number. It took the WalMart employee quite a bit of time to make the switch. employee time expense sure was more than the new cheap phone cost.

Nancy

[Gilda]

Thanks for the heads up. Our son has an old Tracfone and I alerted him.

[carlkeigley]

We use tracfones.
This is good to know ahead of time.

We just came back from Grand Lake at some in-laws.
Luckily they had the hook-ups from before they moved
in a mobile home as a week end getaway. We ran our
trailer on their nickel......LOL

The whole time we were there in the area or out on the
lake we had NO signals. And it seems we are getting sketchy
in certain areas.

Fast moving technology will not let you leave well enough alone.

[Lynn Musgrave]

In this day and age 2 to 3 years is a long time for any brand of cell phone or computer.Keep in mind that technology moves fast with anything that is electronic or instrument related. Our kids have to remind us all the time that if it starts "acting up" or doing strange things then don't even think about getting it fixed just plan on replacing it,and you will save yourself lots of headaches and money.

[carlkeigley]

I still miss looking for the phone booths in the pouring down rains.

[fusedlight]

If you have an old Nextell phone it will die on Sunday:

Last call for Nextel, shutting down on Sunday - Computerworld

You can pick up some newer phones for not too terribly much these days. If you don't go hog-wild with data plans it's not that expensive.

[floyd]

Does this "newer cell tower" thing only apply to Nextel trac phones?
I have an old Nokia phone which is more than ten years old, will it quit working with cell towers any time soon? It looks almost like this....

[fusedlight]

If it's Nextell. Yes. Otherwise... not too long. Technology changes. The old networks could only fit so much into a given bandwidth. People do so much with cell phones now they have to reclaim some of those old, slow, frequencies.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by floyd

Does this "newer cell tower" thing only apply to Nextel trac phones?
I have an old Nokia phone which is more than ten years old, will it quit working with cell towers any time soon?

Not just Nextel, so yes for your Nokia quitting some day, because...

Originally Posted by fusedlight

Technology changes. The old networks could only fit so much into a given bandwidth. People do so much with cell phones now they have to reclaim some of those old, slow, frequencies.

The oldest analog phone (the AMPS system) is already generally not supported. The earliest all-digital standards have now been around for two decades; their days are numbered, but I have not heard about specific timing.

This isn't literally a question of replacing cell system towers, but changing the equipment which operates from them, and the way it operates.

[Nancy]

This is so strange. We went to Walmart to replace our second phone. Fred checked the phone in the store, it was fine. I called my son in another state and he heard me fine. Went home and called my son. I could hear him but he couldn't hear me. Fred called son from his new phone. Everything fine.

So back to Walmart to replace this crazy phone which obviously doesn't get along with whatever cell tower is near my home.

Nancy