My old analog cell phone, a Nokia 918, has a cheap, grandfathered rate plan, so I'm not likely to upgrade unless Cingular rips out their analog equipment. Get this: the phone's logo is "Ameritech"!
Whenever I have a conversation with a modern cell phone user, it's digital-ness is highly obvious because the sound quality is so bad.
I assumed digital meant higher quality. Even today, digital is called "advanced technology." To wit:
Digital phones use advanced technology that converts voices into numeric code, which is then transmitted to the phone and decoded. ... Reception, sound quality, battery life, and security features are superior to analog.
Is this situation ever likely to be improved? Why isn't it possible to sample at a higher rate, compress the result in the phone for transmission, and then decompress at the base (and do the same thing for the reverse channel)? Are all digital cellular phones the same? Aren't many people bothered by the horrible sound quality?
Jeff