don't know which carriers onstar works with in different parts of the country, but the fall back for the connection is an old analog connection. FCC forced carriers to maintain analog until August of '07, but most carriers have maintained the bare minimum of one channel per sector (3-4 per site). quality is crap, and if anyone else is using it, you're out of luck. it also depends on which technology onstar uses as to which carrier you're going to get. if they use CDMA, you'll get Verizon or Sprint, if it's GSM you'll get Cingular or T-Mobile. if you're in a small rural community, you'll use some podunk carrier that hasn't made a profit since they went into business. onstar is not much more than a modem for a wireless line, it gives them access to your vehicle and gives you someone to talk to. if you're taking a long time to connect you're most likely ending on analog, which is slow to pass data across. there's no special line that all carriers share, each one owns a separate block of spectrum and keeps it to themselves exclusively. the only call type that you can make on any carrier, regardless of your contract, is a 911 call. any phone, whether it's programmed or not, can make a 911 call as long as the type of network it requires is available. the network your onstar subscribes to determines how many times you can try to connect, so if you're in NO, with limited sites on air, most likely you're retrying because of the congestion on the network and lack of available trunks. it's probably just a registration problem with GM not getting your info loaded in a timely manner, go back and harass the dealer.

so ends cellular 101