Air Marshall Eldritch

My '98 E430 came to me with a Motorola built into the center console...handsfree sound through the stereo, mike built into the headliner, control unit in the compartment above the ashtray...

I think it's a very nice unit, and I sure wouldn't mind hooking it up for service as it beats the pants off my regular handheld phone, but I noticed several posts referring to the fact that pre-00 phones are analog and thus not supported by the typical local carriers.

Is that a true assessment? If I can't find a service provider for it, then obviously it's just taking up space, but I think it's too nice a phone to just rip out.

What do you think?

silverstreak

My lcoal Mercedes-Benz dealer was most helpful in getting me the right phone setup for my 2000 E55. I'd suggest starting with your local dealership, as they are likely familiar with your local wireless services and the ins-and-outs of getting an account. If you're lucky, your local carrier may still support a new analog phone account. Most local carriers probably actually still have many analog customers, but probably may be unwilling or have policy against taking a new one (more bandwidth, phasing out technology). One trick that may help is if you currently have an analog account, you may be able to get them to switch it to your MBz phone (I needed to do this for my digital phone, which was a type that used more bandwidth than their Nokia standard). Existing customers have a better chance than new ones.

sosh

The 98 phones are analog. I had one in my 98 ML. My carrier supports analog and digital. Fees are higher for analog as they don't offer all the package deals for them. Believe in Central NJ one of the carriers is Cingular and the other Verizon. Both support analog at least they do in Phila and South Jersey. Do not believe its possible to convert your phone system to digital or to get a new digital phone from MB that will integrate with the system in your car. I now have the digital MB phone in both my 01 E Class and my new 02 ML

ChimpWare

I have a 99 E430 with the analog Motorola cell phone and have Verizon as my service provider. The only way to activiate the phone was prepay though, they do not offer normal service contracts for the analog phones. As far as coverage it works well in my area in Northern NJ, NYC and LI.

Air Marshall Eldritch

Thanks for the info guys.