"We're sorry, we won't extend your Onstar subscription because we're upgrading our system to full digitial effective 1 January 2008, and your 2001 Silverado 2500 HD can't handle that. So, you're going to be (1) left out in the cold when you accidentally lock your keys inside (again), ( stuck on the side of the road when you get jacked and can no longer call us to shut down the vehicle (like we would anyway...) or (3) left clinging for dear life because nobody will call you to see if you're ok after the airbags deploy. Thanks for supporting GM and Onstar, and if you want your service restored, you can purchase any one of our fine 2006 or 2007 vehicles which has the correct Onstar components (until we change that on you, and we reserve the right to do that at any time...say 10 minutes after you leave the dealership...)"

Anyway, that's how I read that letter...anyone else get one like that, or am I the only one driving a rolling museum piece now?

Now that sucks! I'm all for upgrading but you have to support the people that funded your upgrade in the first place. Someone should slapped around for this one. GM is in a world of hurt right now and this is one of the best ways to alienate future buyers.

This is the beancounters at work again.

You would think they'd come out with some type of converter upgrade (for the low low price of...)

grr...

Yeah - I'm surprised that they don't make an "add on" adapter that receives the signal and converts it.

Yep, that's a pain in the arse. They're "upgrading" by cutting off the analog cell network. All of the new Onstar uses the digital cell network.


edit: Of course, by they, I mean the cellular providers for Onstar. You'd think that Onstar would at least be able to upgrade the existing systems for little or no charge, given that the customer agrees to a contract of some sort.

...sound like Microsoft's approach to reverse-compatibility... No approach just buy new stuff and/or re-design it.

Seems like I remember Onstar announcing this 3-4 years ago. Of course, it's not just Onstar customers, it's anybody with an analog cellphone. All the cell carriers are switching to digital only in the near future.

Could very well have happend. I don't recall receiving a letter from "Nostar" about that but they may have sent one.

Go figure - I go to use the in-car phone and my minutes had expired (and they were supposed to roll over...). At least they added 200 minutes back to the account for no charge.

GM doesn't own the communications infrastructure, so they have to change with the cell phone companies that do own the infrastructure. Unfortunately the average life of a cell phone is much less then a vehicle, so things will always change. I 100% agree that GM should have a translation module so that the old systems can be updated to the new network.

"Thanks for calling. Oh, and don't call again!"

Maybe this is a ploy by GM to help Daimler-Chrysler's stock prices. ;-)

They exist, but there are not too many cellular customers still using an analog phone. There are businesses that have old systems still using analog. More TDMA customers are hanging on than analog, but generally speaking they do not use many minutes, and the phones are generally considered "for emergency use".

The only reason analog & TDMA are still supported is government intervention. It costs the cellular companies more to maintain than it generates in revenue. When GM was planning for the 2000 or 2001 onStar models, pretty much anything they had to choose from would no longer work in 2011. At the time the digital systems had far less coverage than analog, which surely played into the choice. Hindsight being 20/20, CDMA would have been a better choice.