Joined
·
3,133 Posts
I got the same letter. It's not that 2G is being dropped. It's that Bell and Telus will be shutting down their CDMA network.
All GM vehicles 2014 and older have OnStar systems that run on a CDMA network (I believe it's Verizon that GM uses in the US). The new 2015 OnStar systems run on GSM networks (now AT&T in the US). In Canada OnStar uses Bell's CDMA network.
Around half of the Cell providers in the US use CDMA based networks (other half uses GSM). Most of the rest of the world is on GSM. Bell and Telus both have their own independent CDMA networks. However several years ago Bell and Telus got together and built an all new GSM network. They did this because GSM is the more popular global standard and the new phones are often released on GSM before the CDMA versions come out (and some phones never get released with CDMA compatibility). Rogers was always GSM. So Bell and Telus got tired of having Rogers get the new phones first.
Now that it's been several years and most people on Bell and Telus have switched to GSM based phones they want to shut down their old CDMA network next year. However this means that all GM OnStar services on 2014 models and older will no longer work in Canada.
The letter from GM Canada was very vague. It basically states we know this is going to be a problem. We are going to do something about it but we don't know what yet. So stay tuned.
All GM vehicles 2014 and older have OnStar systems that run on a CDMA network (I believe it's Verizon that GM uses in the US). The new 2015 OnStar systems run on GSM networks (now AT&T in the US). In Canada OnStar uses Bell's CDMA network.
Around half of the Cell providers in the US use CDMA based networks (other half uses GSM). Most of the rest of the world is on GSM. Bell and Telus both have their own independent CDMA networks. However several years ago Bell and Telus got together and built an all new GSM network. They did this because GSM is the more popular global standard and the new phones are often released on GSM before the CDMA versions come out (and some phones never get released with CDMA compatibility). Rogers was always GSM. So Bell and Telus got tired of having Rogers get the new phones first.
Now that it's been several years and most people on Bell and Telus have switched to GSM based phones they want to shut down their old CDMA network next year. However this means that all GM OnStar services on 2014 models and older will no longer work in Canada.
The letter from GM Canada was very vague. It basically states we know this is going to be a problem. We are going to do something about it but we don't know what yet. So stay tuned.
