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Differences Between Analog and Digital
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Digital Phones:
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Analog Phones:
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Equipment Cost: Digital
phones are generally more expensive. |
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Equipment Cost: Analog
phones are cheaper than digital, and low end models are often
given away free with activation. |
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Enhanced Features: Digital
phones offer a broader array of features including Caller
ID, voicemail, and text messaging. |
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Standard Features: Analog
phones provide only limited features offered by the carriers
(voice mail, call waiting) and cannot support newer features
specific to digital networks. |
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Increased Security: Digital
signals are harder for persons committing cellular fraud to
"clone" and impossible for someone to listen in
on a conversation with a scanner. |
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Poor Security: Analog
phones are more prone to fraud, and as a result, cost both
service providers and analog customers millions of dollars
each year. |
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Lower Airtime Rates: Digital
airtime is less expensive than analog airtime because it is
more efficient for digital providers to fit callers on their
system. |
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Higher Airtime Rates:
Analog airtime rates are much higher because digital carriers
can pack up to 9 times as many callers on their network. |
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Coverage Area: Digital
coverage areas are limited to major metropolitan areas, and
digital service suffers a disadvantage when being used in
case of emergencies in rural areas or remote roadways. |
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Increased Coverage: Because
analog has been around for almost two decades, it has the
advantage of offering a network that almost completely blankets
the U.S., and offers users great coverage throughout rural
areas and on most highways and interstates. |
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Better Call Quality: Digital
service provides better voice clarity and fewer dropped calls
due to overcrowding constraints of the network. |
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Poorer Call Quality: Analog
Service is more apt to dropped calls and static, although
it does not suffer voice distortions common with digital phones
in areas of poor signal strength. |
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Digital Distortion: The
trade-off for no static and fewer dropped calls are voice
distortions called "warble" and "clipping."
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