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Picture phones are the most recent development in cell phone technology, offering many more features, including longer battery life, caller identification, and text, voice and photo messaging, said Nick Miller, wireless operations manager for Alaska Communications Systems.
These phones, like all phones that use digital technology, also offer a level of security unheard of with the original analog service, according to Clay Dover, vice president and general manager of Alaska Digitel Wireless Communications.
Digital technology is decrypted, unlike analog technology which can be picked up by people using devices such as a citizens band (CB) or ham radio, he said.
"That is one of the reasons that digital has grown so much: All of things that digital does, people want," Dover said.
But people also want coverage.
"Customers want their phone to work where they go," said Leahna Bagley, a sales associate for Alaska Digitel.
The area where digital service is available is expanding in Alaska, and to a greater degree in the Lower 48. The digital footprint, however, does not extend out to large swaths of the United States currently covered by analog service.
That means that phones without analog backup can only be used in a limited area, mostly in urban centers like the Anchorage Bowl, Fairbanks and Juneau.
"You can't just buy an analog phone anymore," Dover said. "Carriers don't want to offer analog. It is not as cost-effective and you can't carry as many people."
Digital technology carries more calls than analog, allowing more people to use their cells phones in an area at the same time, said Gina McNealy, regional marketing manager for Cellular One Alaska.
"More efficient allows for more users," Pease said. "That is an important consideration with more and more people getting on the market."
Alaska cellular service providers are all switching to digital service, according to Dover, whose company has been providing 100 percent digital service since it began operations in 1998. "No one builds analog anymore," he said.
Despite the switch to digital technology, analog service is offered by any Alaska provider operating an analog network because a Federal Communications Commission mandate requires providers to continue to operate existing analog networks until Feb. 18, 2008.
The FCC mandate, though, does not require phone manufacturers to include analog backup in every handset.
ACS and Cellular One do not sell picture phones with analog backup. MTA wireless and Alaska Digitel, the state's other carriers with networks throughout much of Alaska's populated areas, offer picture phones with analog capabilities.
MTA Wireless only sells phones that offer both digital and analog service, said Jackie Whitstine, the company's public relations manager. "It is a choice we made for our customers. It gives us a little more flexibility."
With its headquarters in the Matanuska valley, many MTA Wireless' customers live or spend much of their time in rural Alaska.
"We have folks that go out to the recreation areas, pretty much on the fringe," Whitstine said. "It gives them a little more of a safeguard."
When cell phone users leave areas offering digital service that are only covered by an analog network, they can still make a call if their handsets offer analog backup.
Any cell phone user, regardless of the handset model, can make a 911 call in any area where some type of cell phone service is available, as mandated by the FCC. This is because all phones can receive service from available wireless channels to make a 911 call, even when the phones cannot select the service to make other phone calls.
Big geography, small population creates challenges
Leahna Bagley recently moved to Anchorage from Washington state and began working as a sales associate at the Alaska Digitel's kiosk in the Dimond Center. "I was surprised that the plans can't be as good (as they were in Washington state) because the coverage isn't as good," she said.
When Bagley lived in Washington she said she had access to more cell phone features and better coverage, all at a better price.
"We are still behind," said Ginny Lyman, an ACS sales associate. "Go to Europe, California. Go check out their rate plans, their coverage, their features and you will see."
Daniel Allen, a sales associate who works with Lyman at the ACS kiosk in the Dimond Center, added: "Not to mention Alaska's huge area with a small market share."
Alaska's size, geography and climate pose additional challenges for service providers, according to Miller of ACS.
Additionally, Alaska's small population base doesn't make building and maintaining cell towers as cost-effective as it is in the nation's densely populated areas. "With the market shares in the Lower 48, they can be a lot more flexible with their services," Whitstine of MTA said.
The state's service providers are expanding their digital networks, which means that more areas will offer digital coverage with its many features.
By the first quarter of 2005, all MTA Wireless towers will be equipped with the latest digital technology it offers, according to Shannon Goodwin, the company's sales and customer service manager. At that point, its customers will no longer need phones with analog backup, she added, but the company will continue to maintain its analog network until 2008, as dictated by the FCC mandate.
ACS is also in the midst of a build-out of its latest digital technology, and the company has yet to determine if it will maintain its analog network after the FCC mandate passes, Miller reported.
"We have not really formalized a plan yet," he said. "It will be determined by our customer base."
Cellular One, McNealy said, is scheduled to complete upgrading its towers with the company's most recent digital technology by the end of September.
"At this point we do not have intentions to support analog after 2008," she said.
Alaska Digitel is scheduled to offer digital service at the North Slope later this year, Dover said. "We are expanding very rapidly. Our goal is to build out to all of Alaska where there are people living. We'll be out there as soon as we can."
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