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- 05-14-2004, 11:13 PM #1PagerGuyGuest
From newsgroup: news:tnn.comm.pager
What is a Pager or Beeper?
You probably have some idea since you are reading this, but a
definition is always a good way to be sure that we are talking about
the same things. A Pager is any device that carries numeric or
alphanumeric information, but not voice information, without wires in
a human readable form.
Isn't this a dead technology?
No, there are still advances being made in this technology! There are
many advantages to using these devices and still 12 million users in
North America!
What this means is that for every 10 Cellphones carried, there is one
Pager being carried. It was said best in "Cyberpunk Handbook" by St
Jude, RU Sirius, and Bart Nagel....
"This is sorta old-tech. It's passe', yes, but it's useful and cheap.
Don't disdain useful and cheap. Morons are taken in by expensive and
glittery and NEW NEW NEW. For that sort of thing, settle for the next
category and save big $$. Old tech, good stuff."
Why was this faq written and who was it written for?
To increase awareness of the use of Pagers, and to provide a central
repository of knowledge to aid Pager users in getting the most from
this technology.
This faq was written primarily for people using personally owned
pagers, but I am willing to expand for other kinds of users.
What are the advantages of Pagers?
Here are the major advantages.
It is less intrusive than telephones, you decide when and if you call
somebody.
Safer to be beeped while driving than to take a phone call.
Safer in environments such as hospitals and construction zones.
Better penetration of buildings.
News and email availability allow savvy users to "be a little online
all the time."
Much less expensive, can lower cellphone bill by screening through
pager also.
If I have to carry a cellphone, isn't it a waste to carry a pager
also?!
A lot of people carry both Cellphone and Pagers. Some people find that
in their area they are not always in cellphone range and carry the
pager as a backup.
Some people carry a Pager with a Cellphone to go with it. There are
many reasons why this is done....
Some people just respond better to printed material than voice. Some
just read faster than they listen, some are hard of hearing and a
alpha display is easier on them than listening to the other end of a
cell phone. Some people know they are going to be in loud environments
and a vibrating pager is better for them.
Then, some people are tired of the cost of cellphones. Those plans
where you are buying so many minutes a month are very expensive for
those who never use the phone unless they need to call a tow truck.
The feature of "free voicemail" on cellphones is there just so you
have to use airtime to listen to the message, then use more airtime to
make a return call. If you put the pager first, you know who you have
to call back without using any airtime minutes. You can call back from
anywhere, your cell phone, home phone, or office. By screening with a
pager, you can cut your minute usage way, way down. Then if you use a
prepaid cell phone, you can save money on top of that. Personally, I
have halfed my mobile telecommunication budget by going with pager and
cell combination, and have greater satisfaction to boot.
Then, of course, the pager is often better at email and news then
cellphones.
What kind of pager is right for me?
The answer is "depends."
If you are always in range, maybe a tiny pager that just receives
phone numbers is right for you. If you are sometimes out of range, you
may need a two way with assured messaging. If you are interested in
email and news, you definatly want alpha, and with a two-way you can
write or answer email wherever you are.
Consider also what you will need to do for repairs and upgrades. A
local pager shop may be the answer, it can be very handy to just go
around the corner to get a service change. Ask yourself before
shoping, where is the nearest local pager store? Where is the nearest
pager store run by a pager network?
How does it work?
Simple, you buy a beeper and a service contract. They give you a phone
number for the beeper. Somebody dials the number, hears a unique
beeper sound, generally half a dozen repeats of the same tone, and
they key in a phone number on a touch tone pad, and hang up. The
number keyed in appears on your pager moments later. You then call
them back at that number.
Is basic operation that simple?
There is one other thing. The Asterisk on the touch tone keyboard puts
a dash in between the numbers, and you can hit the number sign key to
tell the system that your done pitzing around and they can send the
page.
What about text messages?
Oh yeah, somebody logs into your pager companie's webpage, clicks
"send a message" or something like that. Keys in your pager number,
and their message, and it appears on your pager moments later.
Or, they can use the email address your pager company gives you.
[of course, this is for pagers that handle text....]
How can I make people page me instead of leaving a message on my
answering machine?
Use call forwarding from your phone company. The person should know
what to do when they hear those pager beeps pick up, but some pager
companies are now adding a synthesised voice that says "at the tone,
please leave a numeric message" before the beeps.
How can I make people send me text pages?
Your email program should have a function to set a "reply-to address."
This address when set, makes an answer to your email go to that
address regardless of the address in the "from." Field.
By setting this address to your beeper's address, you can cause
replies to your email to be converted into text pages.
How can I get notified of somebody leaving me a voicemail on my pager?
Some legacy equipment, like Radio Shack's TAD-268 can beep you after
taking a message (I heard this is a knockoff of a phone called the
"Freedom Phone," but have not had verification yet). Maybe you can
find one on EBAY. Also, Panasonic makes a two line business voice mail
that can do the same thing. It is called the "kx-tvs50" and the
"kx-tvs90." Also, some programs turn your computer into a voicemail
that beeps you when it takes a message, one is available at
www.imptec.com.
Also, your phone company, if you contract with them to handle your
voicemail on your home line, can probably beep you. Your pager company
can do this also, as well as many corporate email systems.
If I am out of range and an email goes to my pager don't I lose it?!
How can I protect myself from lost emails?
Your ISP may be willing to set up a seperate email address that copies
to your pager. If they can't, you may be able to join a web co-op like
troublepeach.com which can set up addresses like that for you.
You can do it yourself if you have a domain that you control through a
common interface called "cpanel" [if you have this kind of webhost,
you know who you are.] Heres the skinny with cpanel controlled webhost
accounts. Set up a pop3 account for email, then set up a email
forwarder FOR THE SAME USERNAME and set that to your pagers email
address. When this special email address is in the reply-to, your
email reply will be deposited in both the pop3 email account, as well
as forwarded to your pager. Even better is if you have an email
program that can scan multiple pop accounts!
If I toss my email address around the web, won't I get spammed on my
pager, and charged for that message from my pager company?
It's a risk. You can set up yourself up with a email forwarding
service that gives you an email address like "[email protected]" which you
can set to forward to your pager's email address. Then if your paging
email address leaks out, you can kill the forwarding account. Same
thing can be done with webhost services and cpanel.
Please be advised that some email forwarders have compromised
addresses that spammers can get their hands on.
Are there any mailing lists for pager people?
Yes, there a few dozen on yahoo email groups. Heres the link...
http://groups.yahoo.com/dir/1602367881
You can also go to groups.yahoo.com and type in your kind of pager,
like "T900" into the search box.
Back to top
What about usenet?
Yes, we have a newsgroup, tnn.comm.pager. Also, there are pager
newsgroups in other languages and places, like Russian or German.
Back to top
How can I send messages from my two way to a device on another
network?
Here is the web addy you are looking for...
http://www.weblinkwireless.com/custo...vice/how2send/
A great webpage from weblink that tells us how to text into another
carriers network.
What about the web?
A more technical webpage is available at http://www.braddye.com/
And a forum is available at http://kickme.to/wirelessworld
there is a periodical at http://www.wirelessweek.com.
All three of these sources carry advertising.
› See More: Pagers may be better than cell phones
- 05-15-2004, 05:58 AM #2Dave C.Guest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
"PagerGuy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> From newsgroup: news:tnn.comm.pager
>
Yeah!!! I mean, just because I carry a cell phone doesn't mean I have to
ditch my pager. I may drive an SUV but I still tow my horse trailer behind
it as a back-up. THE HORSE IS NOT DEAD!!!! -Dave
- 05-15-2004, 06:00 AM #3GeorgeGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
comments inline
"PagerGuy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> From newsgroup: news:tnn.comm.pager
>
> What is a Pager or Beeper?
>
>
> You probably have some idea since you are reading this, but a
> definition is always a good way to be sure that we are talking about
> the same things. A Pager is any device that carries numeric or
> alphanumeric information, but not voice information, without wires in
> a human readable form.
>
> Isn't this a dead technology?
pretty much.
>
>
> No, there are still advances being made in this technology! There are
> many advantages to using these devices and still 12 million users in
> North America!
>
> What this means is that for every 10 Cellphones carried, there is one
> Pager being carried. It was said best in "Cyberpunk Handbook" by St
> Jude, RU Sirius, and Bart Nagel....
>
> "This is sorta old-tech. It's passe', yes, but it's useful and cheap.
> Don't disdain useful and cheap. Morons are taken in by expensive and
> glittery and NEW NEW NEW. For that sort of thing, settle for the next
> category and save big $$. Old tech, good stuff."
If you already have a cellphone that does everything a pager can do then why
would you want a pager?
>
>
> Why was this faq written and who was it written for?
>
>
> To increase awareness of the use of Pagers, and to provide a central
> repository of knowledge to aid Pager users in getting the most from
> this technology.
>
> This faq was written primarily for people using personally owned
> pagers, but I am willing to expand for other kinds of users.
>
>
> What are the advantages of Pagers?
>
>
> Here are the major advantages.
> It is less intrusive than telephones, you decide when and if you call
> somebody.
> Safer to be beeped while driving than to take a phone call.
> Safer in environments such as hospitals and construction zones.
> Better penetration of buildings.
> News and email availability allow savvy users to "be a little online
> all the time."
> Much less expensive, can lower cellphone bill by screening through
> pager also.
>
I can do that with my phone.
>
> If I have to carry a cellphone, isn't it a waste to carry a pager
> also?!
>
>
> A lot of people carry both Cellphone and Pagers. Some people find that
> in their area they are not always in cellphone range and carry the
> pager as a backup.
I retired our pagers 2 years ago. One of the biggest problems I had with
pagers is that you did not know if you missed a page because you were in a
(even momentary) bad coverage area. Now we use text messaging to replace the
alpha pages. Since the cell system is store and forward and will only send
the page when it sees the phone it is very unlikely that you will miss a
page.
>
> Some people carry a Pager with a Cellphone to go with it. There are
> many reasons why this is done....
>
> Some people just respond better to printed material than voice. Some
> just read faster than they listen, some are hard of hearing and a
> alpha display is easier on them than listening to the other end of a
> cell phone. Some people know they are going to be in loud environments
> and a vibrating pager is better for them.
My cell phone displays alpha messages and vibrates too.
>
> Then, some people are tired of the cost of cellphones. Those plans
> where you are buying so many minutes a month are very expensive for
> those who never use the phone unless they need to call a tow truck.
> The feature of "free voicemail" on cellphones is there just so you
> have to use airtime to listen to the message, then use more airtime to
> make a return call. If you put the pager first, you know who you have
> to call back without using any airtime minutes. You can call back from
> anywhere, your cell phone, home phone, or office. By screening with a
> pager, you can cut your minute usage way, way down. Then if you use a
> prepaid cell phone, you can save money on top of that. Personally, I
> have halfed my mobile telecommunication budget by going with pager and
> cell combination, and have greater satisfaction to boot.
>
> Then, of course, the pager is often better at email and news then
> cellphones.
In what way?
>
>
> What kind of pager is right for me?
>
>
> The answer is "depends."
>
> If you are always in range, maybe a tiny pager that just receives
> phone numbers is right for you. If you are sometimes out of range, you
> may need a two way with assured messaging. If you are interested in
> email and news, you definatly want alpha, and with a two-way you can
> write or answer email wherever you are.
>
> Consider also what you will need to do for repairs and upgrades. A
> local pager shop may be the answer, it can be very handy to just go
> around the corner to get a service change. Ask yourself before
> shoping, where is the nearest local pager store? Where is the nearest
> pager store run by a pager network?
>
>
> How does it work?
>
>
> Simple, you buy a beeper and a service contract. They give you a phone
> number for the beeper. Somebody dials the number, hears a unique
> beeper sound, generally half a dozen repeats of the same tone, and
> they key in a phone number on a touch tone pad, and hang up. The
> number keyed in appears on your pager moments later. You then call
> them back at that number.
>
>
> Is basic operation that simple?
>
>
> There is one other thing. The Asterisk on the touch tone keyboard puts
> a dash in between the numbers, and you can hit the number sign key to
> tell the system that your done pitzing around and they can send the
> page.
>
> What about text messages?
>
>
> Oh yeah, somebody logs into your pager companie's webpage, clicks
> "send a message" or something like that. Keys in your pager number,
> and their message, and it appears on your pager moments later.
>
> Or, they can use the email address your pager company gives you.
>
> [of course, this is for pagers that handle text....]
>
>
> How can I make people page me instead of leaving a message on my
> answering machine?
>
>
> Use call forwarding from your phone company. The person should know
> what to do when they hear those pager beeps pick up, but some pager
> companies are now adding a synthesised voice that says "at the tone,
> please leave a numeric message" before the beeps.
>
>
> How can I make people send me text pages?
>
>
> Your email program should have a function to set a "reply-to address."
> This address when set, makes an answer to your email go to that
> address regardless of the address in the "from." Field.
>
> By setting this address to your beeper's address, you can cause
> replies to your email to be converted into text pages.
>
>
> How can I get notified of somebody leaving me a voicemail on my pager?
>
>
> Some legacy equipment, like Radio Shack's TAD-268 can beep you after
> taking a message (I heard this is a knockoff of a phone called the
> "Freedom Phone," but have not had verification yet). Maybe you can
> find one on EBAY. Also, Panasonic makes a two line business voice mail
> that can do the same thing. It is called the "kx-tvs50" and the
> "kx-tvs90." Also, some programs turn your computer into a voicemail
> that beeps you when it takes a message, one is available at
> www.imptec.com.
>
> Also, your phone company, if you contract with them to handle your
> voicemail on your home line, can probably beep you. Your pager company
> can do this also, as well as many corporate email systems.
>
>
> If I am out of range and an email goes to my pager don't I lose it?!
> How can I protect myself from lost emails?
>
>
> Your ISP may be willing to set up a seperate email address that copies
> to your pager. If they can't, you may be able to join a web co-op like
> troublepeach.com which can set up addresses like that for you.
>
> You can do it yourself if you have a domain that you control through a
> common interface called "cpanel" [if you have this kind of webhost,
> you know who you are.] Heres the skinny with cpanel controlled webhost
> accounts. Set up a pop3 account for email, then set up a email
> forwarder FOR THE SAME USERNAME and set that to your pagers email
> address. When this special email address is in the reply-to, your
> email reply will be deposited in both the pop3 email account, as well
> as forwarded to your pager. Even better is if you have an email
> program that can scan multiple pop accounts!
>
>
> If I toss my email address around the web, won't I get spammed on my
> pager, and charged for that message from my pager company?
>
>
> It's a risk. You can set up yourself up with a email forwarding
> service that gives you an email address like "[email protected]" which you
> can set to forward to your pager's email address. Then if your paging
> email address leaks out, you can kill the forwarding account. Same
> thing can be done with webhost services and cpanel.
>
> Please be advised that some email forwarders have compromised
> addresses that spammers can get their hands on.
>
>
> Are there any mailing lists for pager people?
>
>
> Yes, there a few dozen on yahoo email groups. Heres the link...
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/dir/1602367881
>
> You can also go to groups.yahoo.com and type in your kind of pager,
> like "T900" into the search box.
> Back to top
>
>
> What about usenet?
>
>
> Yes, we have a newsgroup, tnn.comm.pager. Also, there are pager
> newsgroups in other languages and places, like Russian or German.
> Back to top
>
>
> How can I send messages from my two way to a device on another
> network?
>
>
> Here is the web addy you are looking for...
>
> http://www.weblinkwireless.com/custo...vice/how2send/
>
> A great webpage from weblink that tells us how to text into another
> carriers network.
>
> What about the web?
>
>
> A more technical webpage is available at http://www.braddye.com/
>
> And a forum is available at http://kickme.to/wirelessworld
>
> there is a periodical at http://www.wirelessweek.com.
>
> All three of these sources carry advertising.
- 05-15-2004, 08:11 AM #4RayGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
I use a pager in a very simple yet effective way. Our office voicemail
system has an outcall feature that will notify you if you have messages.
Having it call my cell phone is a nuisance because it causes the phone
to ring rather than just notify me. Digital paging on a cellphone is a
worthless feature as far as I'm concerned. I always turn the prompt off
that suggest that people leave a callback number on the cell phone. If
they call my cell phone, they can just leave a voicemail message. By
the way, with Sprint, you can turn all of the prompts off, which I have
done.
The pager is set for simple tone paging, meaning that when the outcall
feature makes the call, it just beeps or vibrates the pager. Nobody
else knows my pager number so it always means that I have calls waiting.
It costs me $5 per month for tone paging service. You can do the same
thing with digital paging, but it takes some extra programming on the
voicemail system. The problem is, some of the paging companies either
don't offer tone paging or don't understand what it is. I dropped Arch
Paging and with the local provider for this reason.
Low tech, but it works great for me.
- 05-15-2004, 01:45 PM #5Please invert everything left of the @ to replyGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
>"PagerGuy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> From newsgroup: news:tnn.comm.pager
>>
>> What is a Pager or Beeper?
>>
>>
>> You probably have some idea since you are reading this, but a
>> definition is always a good way to be sure that we are talking about
>> the same things. A Pager is any device that carries numeric or
>> alphanumeric information, but not voice information, without wires in
>> a human readable form.
>>
>> Isn't this a dead technology?
On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:00:21 -0400, "George" <[email protected]> wrote:
>pretty much.
Except for those of us who need 24/7 communications. Details below.
>> No, there are still advances being made in this technology! There are
>> many advantages to using these devices and still 12 million users in
>> North America!
>>
>> What this means is that for every 10 Cellphones carried, there is one
>> Pager being carried. It was said best in "Cyberpunk Handbook" by St
>> Jude, RU Sirius, and Bart Nagel....
>>
>> "This is sorta old-tech. It's passe', yes, but it's useful and cheap.
>> Don't disdain useful and cheap. Morons are taken in by expensive and
>> glittery and NEW NEW NEW. For that sort of thing, settle for the next
>> category and save big $$. Old tech, good stuff."
On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:00:21 -0400, "George" <[email protected]> wrote:
>If you already have a cellphone that does everything a pager can do then why
>would you want a pager?
<snip>
Because a pager does it better, more reliably, and for longer than a
celphone will run.
1) One AA cell runs my 2-way text pager for weeks when used frequently. My
(three) cellphones (Nokia, Palm and Samsung) need to be restoked with a
charge daily, or even more often, if used frequently, even if just in text
modes.
2) I can get replacement AAs in any convenience store and be back on line
in less than a minute after swapping the battery. How far do I have to
drive to get a replacement cellphone battery, and when are they open? How
long is that phone off line while charging? Think about that one.
3) Dead zones are more frequent for cellular than for pagers. When I do
calldowns for my (24-hour on call go-anywhere-in-seven-counties) team, I
always do pagers first because experience has shown that sending 'pages'
and SMS to cellphones results in a high failure rate. I also see this when
I travel in urban areas; concrete canyons block cellular signals much more
than paging signals.
4) Paging infrastructure is more robust. Paging (and 2-way messaging using
Blackberries and Palm Sevens) worked continually despite the collapse of
the WTC. It took weeks to get the cellular net back up. Talk to anyone who
worked at Ground Zero, and they will tell you pagers, and paging-based
systems such as old Blackberries and Palm Sevens saved their butts.
Summary: Serious on-call folks have pagers _and_ cellphones.
<snip>
--
Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.
- 05-15-2004, 02:30 PM #6L David MathenyGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
"Ray" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:nyppc.52675$536.9040041@attbi_s03...
> I use a pager in a very simple yet effective way. Our office voicemail
> system has an outcall feature that will notify you if you have messages.
>
I do that with my Nokia cell phone using the ATTWS paging number.
> Having it call my cell phone is a nuisance because it causes the phone
> to ring rather than just notify me. Digital paging on a cellphone is a
> worthless feature as far as I'm concerned. I always turn the prompt off
> that suggest that people leave a callback number on the cell phone. If
> they call my cell phone, they can just leave a voicemail message. By
> the way, with Sprint, you can turn all of the prompts off, which I have
> done.
>
The phone doesn't ring if you use a numeric-paging interface number.
I don't have people page me either; just my answering machine.
> The pager is set for simple tone paging, meaning that when the outcall
> feature makes the call, it just beeps or vibrates the pager. Nobody
> else knows my pager number so it always means that I have calls waiting.
> It costs me $5 per month for tone paging service. You can do the same
> thing with digital paging, but it takes some extra programming on the
> voicemail system. The problem is, some of the paging companies either
> don't offer tone paging or don't understand what it is. I dropped Arch
> Paging and with the local provider for this reason.
>
My phone just beeps when it gets a text message. I know it's my
answering machine because nobody else sends me text messages.
> Low tech, but it works great for me.
>
It's still an extra piece of gear that most people don't need.
- 05-15-2004, 02:57 PM #7pemaluGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
I already have a cell phone that can receive pages at no extra charge and I
don't have to try to find a working pay phone to return a page. Why spend
extra money for something that my phone can do already?
- 05-15-2004, 03:36 PM #8Steven J SobolGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
In alt.cellular Please invert everything left of the @ to reply <[email protected]> wrote:
> 1) One AA cell runs my 2-way text pager for weeks when used frequently. My
> (three) cellphones (Nokia, Palm and Samsung) need to be restoked with a
> charge daily, or even more often, if used frequently, even if just in text
> modes.
Let's be fair: that's because you only use a lot of juice when you're
receiving or sending a page and that only takes seconds... a cell phone
does a lot more stuff, especially when actually being used...
> 3) Dead zones are more frequent for cellular than for pagers. When I do
> calldowns for my (24-hour on call go-anywhere-in-seven-counties) team, I
> always do pagers first because experience has shown that sending 'pages'
> and SMS to cellphones results in a high failure rate. I also see this when
> I travel in urban areas; concrete canyons block cellular signals much more
> than paging signals.
Hm. That doesn't make sense - it's all radio transmissions, whether to a pager
or not. What frequency do pagers run on? Isn't it normally 900 MHz? That's
pretty close to what a lot of the cellular carriers run... although a lot of
them also run on the PCS frequencies.
> 4) Paging infrastructure is more robust.
This is true.
--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/
"someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy
slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003
- 05-15-2004, 03:38 PM #9Steven J SobolGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
In alt.cellular pemalu <[email protected]> wrote:
> I already have a cell phone that can receive pages at no extra charge and I
> don't have to try to find a working pay phone to return a page. Why spend
> extra money for something that my phone can do already?
I think probably the biggest reason is that there may still be areas
where pagers have coverage where cell phones don't. Not as big an issue in
the city, but in outlying areas it may make a difference.
Alpha two-way paging, a couple years ago through Arch Wireless, cost me
$10 per month for 10,000 characters. They "leased" me a P935 two-way pager,
but there was no monthly lease charge. So... pagers don't cost that much more
additional money monthly, either. I do agree that it can be a pain to carry
the extra equipment, though.
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- 05-15-2004, 04:02 PM #10Elmo P. ShagnastyGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
In article <[email protected]>,
"pemalu" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I already have a cell phone that can receive pages at no extra charge and I
> don't have to try to find a working pay phone to return a page. Why spend
> extra money for something that my phone can do already?
Frequently you can receive pages in places where your cell phone would
never work.
That's a nice flexibility to have.
- 05-15-2004, 04:33 PM #11pemaluGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "pemalu" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I already have a cell phone that can receive pages at no extra
>> charge and I don't have to try to find a working pay phone to return
>> a page. Why spend extra money for something that my phone can do
>> already?
>
> Frequently you can receive pages in places where your cell phone would
> never work.
>
> That's a nice flexibility to have.
I suppose if I traveled a lot, that would be useful.
- 05-15-2004, 06:00 PM #12GeorgeGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
"Please invert everything left of the @ to reply" <[email protected]>
wrote in message >
> Except for those of us who need 24/7 communications. Details below.
I often need 24/7 communications and my cellphone is able to do it.
>
> >> No, there are still advances being made in this technology! There are
> >> many advantages to using these devices and still 12 million users in
> >> North America!
> >>
> >> What this means is that for every 10 Cellphones carried, there is one
> >> Pager being carried. It was said best in "Cyberpunk Handbook" by St
> >> Jude, RU Sirius, and Bart Nagel....
> >>
> >> "This is sorta old-tech. It's passe', yes, but it's useful and cheap.
> >> Don't disdain useful and cheap. Morons are taken in by expensive and
> >> glittery and NEW NEW NEW. For that sort of thing, settle for the next
> >> category and save big $$. Old tech, good stuff."
>
>
> On Sat, 15 May 2004 08:00:21 -0400, "George" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> >If you already have a cellphone that does everything a pager can do then
why
> >would you want a pager?
> <snip>
>
> Because a pager does it better, more reliably, and for longer than a
> celphone will run.
>
> 1) One AA cell runs my 2-way text pager for weeks when used frequently.
My
> (three) cellphones (Nokia, Palm and Samsung) need to be restoked with a
> charge daily, or even more often, if used frequently, even if just in text
> modes.
>
> 2) I can get replacement AAs in any convenience store and be back on line
> in less than a minute after swapping the battery. How far do I have to
> drive to get a replacement cellphone battery, and when are they open? How
> long is that phone off line while charging? Think about that one.
I typically get 2~3 days from a battery. If I won't be in the vehicle I can
take an extra battery and go a week. If I am in and out of the vehicle the
car charger will allow me to keep on going forever. Both my desk charger and
car charger can charge the battery while the phone is operating but even if
the phone is offline it is no problem because the cell system has a more
intelligent design. The paging system lights up every transmitter when it
sends a page. It doesn't know if you got it. The cellphone system is store
and forward. It holds the page and only sends it when it sees your phone and
only needs to use a single site. If I change the battery, loose signal or
whatever I still get the page.
>
> 3) Dead zones are more frequent for cellular than for pagers. When I do
> calldowns for my (24-hour on call go-anywhere-in-seven-counties) team, I
> always do pagers first because experience has shown that sending 'pages'
> and SMS to cellphones results in a high failure rate. I also see this
when
> I travel in urban areas; concrete canyons block cellular signals much more
> than paging signals.
Not my experience. I frequently travel to NYC. Also consider if the person
you are paging happens to be on the subway (but not in an Amtrak tunnel
because phones work there but pagers don't). If they have a pager you will
never reach them unless you keep on sending pages. If using a cellphone they
immediately get the page as soon as their phone handshakes when they are
walking up the steps. Two way messaging (pagers, Blackberries etc) is
incredibly lame in my home area and along routes I travel so I don't
consider them an option.
>
> 4) Paging infrastructure is more robust. Paging (and 2-way messaging
using
> Blackberries and Palm Sevens) worked continually despite the collapse of
> the WTC. It took weeks to get the cellular net back up. Talk to anyone who
> worked at Ground Zero, and they will tell you pagers, and paging-based
> systems such as old Blackberries and Palm Sevens saved their butts.
You might have forgotten when the comm satellite that carried most pager
traffic spun out of control. Most paging systems in the US were down at
least 3 days.
The cellphone folks have learned why their systems failed and have made
substantial efforts to prevent it from happening. You may have a need to
have redundancy in communications but the OP was trying to declare that
pagers are better than sex and you were a moron if you didn't have one.
>
> Summary: Serious on-call folks have pagers _and_ cellphones.
>
> <snip>
>
> --
> Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct
tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT.
- 05-15-2004, 06:03 PM #13ScottGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
Even though I carry a cell phone (Nextel) I also carry a SkyTel numeric
pager as well as an "old school" (no phone, just email) Blackberry. The
pager *MIGHT* go off two or three times a year but when it does, its a
life saver. In my businesses we use a lot of redundant back-up's "just in
case" as customer service is crucial to us and seperates us from the
competition. As for the Blackberry and the 9-11 comment I saw in this
thread, interesting. I was just about getting on the GWB on 9-11 when the
WTC was hit. Both of my cell phones (AT&T and Verizon at the time) were
pretty useless pretty quickly but my Blackberry (via Earthlink using
Cingular's network I think) kept working flawlessly and allowed me to stay
in touch with family. As much as I would like to switch to one of the
smaller (i.e. T-Mobile 7230) Blackberry units, I always remember 9-11 and
just figure they might fail in a 9-11 scenario whereas my old school
BBerry probably would not. It would not surprise me if I am wrong about
this, again, just an assumption on my part.
- 05-15-2004, 06:34 PM #14Elmo P. ShagnastyGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
In article <[email protected]>,
"pemalu" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Frequently you can receive pages in places where your cell phone would
> > never work.
> >
> > That's a nice flexibility to have.
>
> I suppose if I traveled a lot, that would be useful.
Not even that. There are holes in Nextel service, for example, even in
large cities.
I've seen pagers receiving pages in basements where cell phones have no
service.
- 05-15-2004, 06:43 PM #15Bill TGuest
Re: Pagers may be better than cell phones
I find that cells have many more dead zones than pagers.
Other pager advantages:
Cellphones are banned in many hospital areas, so pagers are de rigeur
for hospital workers.
I don't know if this still the case, but a few years ago when I tried to
do without a pager, there can be a significant delay (up to 2-3 minutes)
before a text message shows up on my cellphone, while pagers seldom have
more than a 15 second delay. In the medical/hospital setting, a 2-3 minute
delay just doesn't cut it.
So...I have to lug around both a cellphone and a pager. I bet there is a
market for a dual-use phone with individual pager and cell-phone
circuitries.
Bill T
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