OnStar woes, you need to read this

[DieselDixon]

Well I received the summer edition of OnStar Magazine with a discouraging letter from the publisher.

It basically said that starting February 2008 our OnStar system would no longer work as it is today. Apparently they rely heavily on the analog network and come Feb. 2008 the FCC does not require the companies that support these networks to have to operate them any longer. At that point, in order to use OnStar you will need to have a dual-mode (analog/digital) hardware system in your vehicle because they will be changing over entirely to digital.

The good news is for those of you who have not forked out nearly $44k for your new D/A, starting in 2004 select vehicles will be offering this new OnStar hardware. Something to look for that's for sure.

[NWDmax]

The aftermarket will jump all over this thing and a solution for current owners will be forthcoming.
All it costs is money right? :D tongue.gif

[DMAX Daddy]

Yep, if theres a way to make a profit, there will be some sort of retrofit.

[Murf]

So far everytime I've needed it I have not been able to raise a signal anyway either from Onstar or the telephone system - yes I'm in rural Colorado and so far I'm really not that impressed - particularly if they want you to pay $16.00 or so bucks a month, (first year free with purchase so its been good to check it out) satellite phones are looking more like the way to go for rural communication?

[FisHn2DMax]

This is actually a good news / bad news issue.

The bad news is that the 03 and previous on-star owners will have problems using ON-star in the highly populated or city areas since band width is at a premuim and most if not all cell companies will drop the analog signal to gain more digital bandwidth. If you already have a digital cell phone then you really don't need on-star anyway in densely populated areas.

The Good news is for the rural areas, most of the rural cell carriers haven't yet switched to Digital due to the high expense and they still have plenty of bandwidth available in Analog. So I don't see them switching to 100% digital anytime soon. Rurual areas is where you would most likely have the need for emergency On-star features anyway and because on-star uses an analog signal, it has a much higher transmit power than does a digital or analog hand set cell phone. In the rural areas, the older analog on-star systems should work for sometime to come.

I also believe that a low cost aftermarket modification kit will become avialable to easily upgrade the older on-star systems to digital capability.

Overall this should not pose a big problem.

[Wayne Dohnal]

I wonder how many people really care about OnStar? I have it because my wife insisted on heated seats, and of course you can't buy heated seats without OnStar. Makes sense, right? The last thing I need is another $200/year bill and a 50 cent/minute cell phone when I already have one. I'll play the odds that I don't get into a disaster like the ones you hear on the OnStar commercials. I think OnStar is a solution still looking for a problem.

[sdaver]

guess what its time for me to reup.......good post timing........got some good questions for them :D dave