As an owner of a 2003 GMC Envoy (I have upgraded, since I what my family to have piece of mind) and future owner of a 2008 CTS, when I first heard about this last year, I was taken back.....how could GM, after all of their advertising of the Onstar system. How could they just cut people off? What if: a person (housewife), never got the notification that Onstar was doing what they are doing, and she has a problem, (ex-kids, accident, whatever...), the problem goes from bad to worse and they can't get an ambulance (as an example). Wouldn't it be prudent for GM to BEFORE January to contact each current customer to ensure that they either want to upgrade to not, or KEEP the analog system... just from a legal point of view.
What they should do, bite the bullet and either upgrade for free or keep the old system.