Where Have All the Pagers Gone? 584
oddRaisin writes "After recently sleeping through a page for work, I decided to change my paging device from my BlackBerry (which is quiet and has a pathetic vibrate mode) to an actual pager. After looking at the websites of Cingular, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, I'm left scratching my head and wondering where all the pagers went. I can't find them or any mention of them. Pagers of yore offered some great features that reflected the serious nature of being paged. They were loud. They had good vibrate modes. They continued to alert after a page until you acknowledged them. I didn't have to differentiate between a text from a friend and a page from work. Now that pagers seem to have become passé, what are other people doing to fill this niche? Are some phones better pagers than others? Are there still paging service providers out there?"
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:2, Informative)
With a pager, someone notified me of their desire to speak to me, I wrap up whatever I'm doing, and I call them. If it's really urgent, they put a 911 at the end and I move a little quicker. I really do miss them... I can't be the only one... right... right?!
Have you heard of SMS, or "texting"? :P
It can work exactly the same as paging, and is what we use at work for the same purpose.
Custom Ringtones (Score:4, Informative)
Custom Ringtones are you friend here.
When I use to be on call I setup a ringtone for calls from the overnight answering service. Reveille was usually my choice as bugles blaring full blast usually woke me up from even my worst alcohol induced slumbers. With the Blackberry I know you can set these rules to override your sound profile. So you could set your profile to silent and avoid all other calls\txts but the custom rules would still come through.
Man I miss my BlackBerry....stupid WinMo pos smartphone, Oh well I'm not on call anymore :D so it isn't as bad.
From Google Sponsored Links (Score:3, Informative)
metrotelpaging.com
Along with a few dozen other companies dedicated to this service. It's one thing if finding the answer takes some serious searching, but this is just silly.
Not gone, just more niche (Score:5, Informative)
Pagers definitely have not gone, they just have become unpopular among consumers as two-way messaging replaced it. Hospitals and the US Government use one-way pagers still a lot. Our company was apparently taken over by another larger one, http://www.usamobility.com/ [usamobility.com]
Nokia 6310i? (Score:5, Informative)
My nokia 6310i has a "pager" mode, when you receive an SMS, it keeps beeping as loud as it can until you do something.
Very annoying, but can also be very useful.
Frank
Skytel (Score:5, Informative)
Google is too hi tech too... (Score:3, Informative)
type pager into google and a whole bunch of services pop up...
Re:Try YouMail... (Score:4, Informative)
http://sameritech.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/cell-phone-voicemail-dont-be-tricked-into-using-your-anytime-minutes/ [wordpress.com]
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:5, Informative)
If you don't pick up you've got to listen to some damn message - and you're sitting wondering about the content of the message until you listen to it.
I almost never pick up my cellphone anymore... I leave it on silent. My voicemail goes here [phonetag.com], and if I feel like it I can check the transcription email on my phone. No tedious sorting or listening because I can read ten times faster than people can talk.
The transcription service works extremely well, and is pretty cheap. Sorry to sound like an ad but I was in the EXACT position as you and I am much happier now.
Re:The 80s called (Score:5, Informative)
The battery on a pager lasts for weeks. On some models, months. Pagers don't transmit, so they can be used in high sensitivity areas. They're very cheap to run.
Pagers are still popular - in places like Hospitals they're still mandatory as mobile phones are banned (still, although that's (slowly) changing).
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:3, Informative)
I've had SMS messages that were over a week late. This, of course, is the fault of the cellphone carriers not acknowledging the way SMS is now used by upgrading the service to reflect its customers' expectations.
Re:The 80s called (Score:5, Informative)
Look out for Symbian phones. Most Nokia N or E-series phones have many different applications available that allow you to do all sorts of things with SMS. From spam filtering to conversation management and more.
I use a Nokia E90 and find that its probably the most powerful cellphone I have ever used. I have an iTouch and can't imagine trying to use it for anything beyond music/video and the occasional browsing. If the browser on my E90 isn't enough, I can use an application called Joiku Spot to share the HSDPA connection on the E90 with the iTouch via wifi, or just connect to a PC/Laptop via Bluetooth, USB or even InfraRed and use HSDPA that way.
The E-Series phones all offer a free application from Nokia called MfE (Mail for Exchange) that allows you to access Exchange 2000 through to 2007. There are other companies out there offering their own versions that offer even more feature than the basic MfE from Nokia.
There are Blackberry client for the Nokia E series phones so if you currently have push services from Blackberry, you can continue to use them on your Nokia. Probably the most significant difference would be the cameras. N-Series tend to have better cameras at higher resolutions (anywhere up to 8MP) where as the E-series average 3.2MP cameras.
Many of the phones have built in GPS and include Nokia Maps, but it also works equally well with Google Maps for Mobile. Right down to turn by turn route assistance using the GPS.
Symbian based cell phones have been around since 2001 when Nokia released the first 7650. The Symbian platform is a direct descendant of the old Psion devices. It is mature. It is stable. It has years of user feedback. It just works. There is a very large application base available for it out there.
Oh, and the best feature for me has been the version of Python Nokia released for their E and N-series phones along with an API that allows you to hook in to nearly every aspect of the phone, from the GPS, camera, OpenGL, through to pulling data from the calendar or the messaging platforms among others.
The most paranoid, yet strangely compelling, Python script I like is one that works as a kind of panic button. You load the app and it immediately takes a photo of whatever the camera is aimed at, sends a MMS message (or email, or SMS) with your current location from the cell tower while it waits till it has a GPS lock and includes that photo if possible. Once it has GPS lock, it will send GPS coords via SMS every X (edit the script to set, defaults to 180) seconds and then will also call a designated number to play back a pre-recorded message, then use text-to-speech to give the GPS coordinates on that call. It can then call emergency services and play that same message for them. If it can't get GPS lock (say you're in a building or whatever) then it will just use cell towers it can detect so that there is at least some method of tracing you.
All from a python script running on a cellphone. You can find it on the Nokia developer forums wiki. Because its a script, you can modify it to suit your needs and location if you want. Nokia's Python API is so straight forward that you can easily add features of your own.
You could probably even write a Python script to manage your SMS messages exactly as you want them to be dealt with if you know even a small amount of Python.
Good places to start are community sites like allaboutsymbian.com or my-symbian.com. Or you can check out the S60.com blogs and sites.
There are a lot of devices from Nokia now. E-series are targetted more at Enterprise users where as the N-series are more consumer market devices, but can still do everything an E-series device can do.
Pagers are great (Score:5, Informative)
Pretty much all doctors still use them. Why?
1) great reception - I often get pages way inside buildings, where cellphones have no hope of working
2) Less intrusive. I get the info, but can respond to it when I choose. I guess you could call screen, but don't always know when to do that.
3) batteries last for several months
4) Loud common ring tones, strong vibrate mode. Pagers tend to have common ring tones, which different phones do not.Easier to differentiate in a noisy setting if your pager is going off.
Sure they are an older tech, and not "cool", but they are still very useful, and better than a phone in many cases.
My hospital uses Unication text pagers - google it.
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:5, Informative)
Moreover, SMS messages are often *never* delivered; making SMS messaging impossible for use in an environment where the message MUST be delivered.
Re:Try YouMail... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1213633044.87 [eubusiness.com]
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, that's the other part. Unlike e-mail, you don't even get notified weeks later that it never made it. The funny thing is that it usually costs more money to send a text message than email. They really do need to redesign the SMS protocol to take into account both priority and receipts.
Some background (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not a pager guy, but have used them and know pager guys. Also, have played with old pager gear as a staring point for some ham radio projects.
Pagers used high power (300 watt) transmitters, and if you wanted to cover a decent area, several of them, synchronized to prevent distorted signals in the area where their coverage patterns overlapped. They were known for their tendency to interfere with other systems, no matter how well they were maintained. It was an expensive way to make not much money.
Profit margins were low, and churn was always a problem. Companies went in and out of business, larger companies consolidated the smaller companies, but, in the end, Nextel and cellular technology gave you two-way communication at essentially the same monthly rate.
Basically, paging companies were made economically obsolete by advances in technology.
There are "micro" paging systems still in use at restaurants, hospitals and companies, but the high power transmitters on the hill are pretty much gone, replaced with cell sites.
Re:Pagers are great (Score:5, Informative)
Pretty much all doctors where I live still use them.
Fixed that for you. I haven't seen a pager here in ages.
You must not be in hospitals much. Every hospital I work in I see pagers in use. For most of the reasons stated by the original poster.
3) batteries last for several months
Cell phone batteries often last a couple years, considering I've never owned a cell phone that didn't come with a charger.
The fact he was making is that batteries in a pager don't run out as fast as cell phone. No need to replace the single battery (in most pagers) but once a month sometimes and no need to remember to put it on a charger every night.
4) Loud common ring tones, strong vibrate mode. Pagers tend to have common ring tones, which different phones do not. Easier to differentiate in a noisy setting if your pager is going off.
Fail. Almost every cell phone will allow you to install your own ring tone, but I've never had a pager with that ability.
Once again you assume too much. He was referring to more unique tones of the pager compared to the obnoxious ring tone choices on cell phones. The vibrate mode on most cell phones is very weak. At least weaker than they need to be in certain environments.
Re:Pagers are great (Score:5, Informative)
All of the major hospitals in this area still require doctors to have pagers.
Pagers can be used in info sensitive, and interference sensitive areas. I've never seen a no pager zone. Hospitals can't have phones because the interference (google GSM interference) problems with monitors, and with the HIPPA problems with people being able to photo sensitive info.
I'm not sure what he's talking about on call screening.
On batteries, he's saying a single AA battery will last months. No charging. My BBCurve will go a day or two without a charge. My old moto pager would eat a battery every 2 months.
Not sure the point on ringtones.
As far as reception, a pager needs MUCH less of a signal for it to receive it's itty bitty page. A cell phone needs to maintain a strong signal because it's required for a decent 2 way call.
I can see the point of a pager as a sysadmin. I've been suffering through with a blackberry as well, having monitors send SMS. The blackberry isn't loud (a pager in the house used to wake me up no matter WHERE I left it.) If I ever mute the phone because I went somewhere quite, I have to remember to turn it back on. I've missed SMS's because of ATT, never used to miss anything from the paging service. I've gotten pages when I was miles out in the Gulf of Mexico fishing, long after I lost cell reception.
Until the phone companies make true paging a feature (pages aren't subject to the settings of calls, SMS, apps, etc) they will not be the same.
Now, as far as why this is asked on slashdot? Google for pager service, tons of info. If that doesn't help find anyone local, then go to the nearest hospital, find a random doctor with a pager and ask them if they know who it's through. A lot of the time the pager is branded, or will at least have a sticker on it with the company it's from.
Re:The 80s called (Score:3, Informative)
i dunno wtf you need a pager for if you have a cell phone. Get a nice cell that does all the bells and whistles YOU desire and you're gtg.
Because sometimes you need to be paged.
Also, sending a page from a modem is trivial, just dial the number, pause, and dial whatever number or code you want. I can even program the ancient phone system at work to do that when someone calls after hours. If you've got a way to do that for an arbitrary cell phone provider for free, I'd love to hear about it (otherwise, you play guess the email-to-sms gateway, then get a mangled SMS with all sorts of useless header junk before you get to the text messa... which gets cut off because the headers filled up the SMS character limit).
A few cell phone providers do have "press X to page the person" in the voicemail system. Maybe this would work as long as the person remembered never to answer when the automated paging system was calling.
Re:Pagers are great (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:4, Informative)
Many phones give you the ability to request to be notified when the SMS is delivered. I believe this is end to end delivery, not just to the SMSC. Of course, this feature may not work across networks.
Re:Skytel (Score:4, Informative)
Motorola (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Skytel (Score:2, Informative)
I believe that Verizon spun off their messaging unit to become American Messaging (http://www.americanmessaging.net).
I've had a Unication Alpha Elite 1-way text pager from them for a couple of years, not much to say one way or another - pretty much what you'd expect from a paging company.
Re:Skytel (Score:1, Informative)
I use Skytel as well. I've had the Skywriter 2000 2-way messenger for years now. It also has its own e-mail address that my host monitoring systems send alerts to.
Re:Skytel (Score:3, Informative)
Rogers in Canada still does paging too.
http://your.rogers.com/store/wireless/products/pagers/business/overview.asp [rogers.com]
Re:The 80s called (Score:2, Informative)
He probably means an iPod Touch
Re:I've got to say, I agree with this post (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Skytel (Score:3, Informative)
We use http://www.usamobility.com/ [usamobility.com]
It works. It's cheaper by far than offering all your employees cell phones, particularly if you intend on forcing them to wear the leash.
Doctors still use pagers too, they are just more reliable in the sense that you will almost certainly get the page unless you are intentionally trying to hide from civilization.
Cell phones are great if you want to talk to people, but if you just want to know people want to talk to you ... pagers are still better.
Re:Skytel (Score:4, Informative)
You must have missed the part where the OP said that they were already using their Blackberry as a pager, but were ditching it because it "is quiet and has a pathetic vibrate mode".
He's complaining that the volume isn't loud enough, and that the vibration isn't sufficient.
Re:Blackberry Vibration = terrible (Score:2, Informative)
I work in an environment where all techies are issued Blackberries and audible ringing is PROHIBITED. Vibration is the only permissible way for the devices to go off.
Meanwhile, I miss most of my calls because of the BB's pathetically trivial degree of vibration.
What can be done? Can the BB be modded to vibrate more? Probably not. That is why I'm considering VOIP solution where my calls simultaneously go to my BB & my personal cell phone. My cell phone has a decent vibration and if I can get this to work, I can still answer the call using my BB as required.