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I just received a notice from my previous cell phone carrier -- dropped a couple of months ago because they were in the wrong country and because we wanted a family phone plan, as I have explained before in these pages.

The notice was to inform me that the carrier -- Verizon Wireless -- is turning off its analog network on February 18, 2008 and it exhorts me to contact a customer service representative to arrange for a free digital phone today to upgrade to be able to use its "all-digital wireless network." I'm not going to belabor, in my horribly analog manner, the presence of the words 'digital' and 'wireless' alongside one another in the same sentence, but I was hardly impressed with the three major reasons why I should convert to digital now:

• Higher quality voice calls and faster data services
• Enhanced emergency 911 services
• Longer battery life from wireless devices

Higher quality voice calls, but more dropped calls? Very important to me, using a cell phone for what amounts to only really urgent situations and emergencies. Faster data services? Could I care a rat's &*%$? No, of course not.

Enhanced emergency 911 services. You mean now the 911 operator should now know where I am? I usually do anyway, I have to say. But as my digital coverage area would be much more limited than my analog service, I am less likely to be able to get through to 911 anyway. The beauty of analog was, and is, its wonderful tolerance to RF radiating conditions. At our previous location digital service disappeared two miles out of town on a strategic highway. Analog was available most of the ride.

Longer battery life from wireless devices. I believe they mean longer standby times rather than the replacement life of the battery itself. As my cell phone has, until this year, been permanently plugged into the cigarette lighter socket (sorry, not politically correct: I meant the +12 V outlet) in my car, that has hardly been relevant. It is still not relevant: my new phone is sitting in front of me, turned off, and it is turned on only when I go out and may possibly have some family business come up.

I was happy to hear that "If you do not act by February 18, 2008, your service will be disconnected and you will no longer be charged by Verizon Wireless." That seems a lot fairer than to continue billing such customer.

I don't have a problem with a carrier going solely to a digital service -- provided it's not the Qualcomm version -- and, as I have seen the local analog equipment in question, with an alarm sounding from it virtually every time I entered the PUD hut where it was located, I can imagine the commercial justification for the move. But I have a couple of questions.

What are you doing with your channel allocations from the FCC? Planning some extramural use of them? Handing back the licenses? Hoping nobody notices? Don't know yet? Nobody thought about that?

What are you doing about 911 service for analog users? It has always been the case that a cell phone that is no longer in use by an account paying customer (deactivated) would always be able to connect to 911. The FCC says under its "Basic 911 Rules:" that they "Require wireless carriers to transmit all 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the carrier's service or not." Hundreds of thousands of analog cell phones have been donated to domestic victim organizations, and other disabled or endangered people who might need immediate emergency help, and could not possibly afford the absurd costs of an active network connection. What are you doing for those people, Verizon Wireless?

The final insult was when I visited the Verizon Wireless site and found that my old ZIP code was not in their digital network's coverage area -- so all my calls would have come with roaming charges -- and the basic monthly plans would have been about 300% of what I had paid for my analog service, where I had no contract.