I've been flying 737, 747 and 757 for 32 years, and procedure in one of the worlds largest airlines has always been, 'below -40C, anti-icing is not needed, unless you are in a descent, where it may be switched on in anticipation of entering icing conditions'. That, is standard procedure. I don't recall it ever failing in all that time.
hi,
you might have followed a wrong SOP during 32 years as I did until now on both Boeing & Airbus. Same with wrong check-list amended after accidents. By the way, what I teach to my experienced trainees is to follow the SOPs unless you know or have a well founfed reason to think that it is unsafe. Some pilots write the books and others have to cope with bad literature in the air.