Tech Law Prof Blog

AT&T, Vonage Settle

Vonage has settled AT&T's patent claim to the tune of around $39 million.  That means those annoying commercials will continue.  The story is here.

OnStar Analog Service Closes

OnStar's analog service is going away in February, much to the dismay of about 1 million customers who rely on it.  This is driven by an FCC decision allowing carriers to stop supporting analog cell networks as of February, 2008.  OnStar has three types of equipment in cars: digital, digital/analog ready, and analog.  The analog service was the mainstay of the service as that offered the greatest coverage over the continent.  OnStar supplied analog/digital ready starting with the 2005 GM models.  At this point, any subscriber with digital equipment in the car is fine.  Anyone with analog/digital ready can upgrade their equipment while the pure analog people cannot upgrade to digital service unless they want to buy a new car.  GM certainly won't be upset about that one.  Details from OnStar are here.  The cut-off date is December 31, 2007.  That's just in time to take advantage of those end of year sales.