Pagers

A pager (sometimes referred as a Beeper) is a personal telecommunications device used to request a phone call from a pager subscriber and/or receive simple text communications in the form of e-mail and SMS. more...

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Pagers exist as one-way numeric and alphanumeric models that only receive incoming communications and two-way alphanumeric models capable of sending e-mails and SMS messaging.

Until the popular adoption of mobile phones in the late 1990s, pagers fulfilled the role of common personal and mobile communications. As of 2007, pagers have fallen into obsolescence and preserved only by niche markets of emergency service personnel and information technology support.

Function and operation

Paging is a subscription service offered in a variety of plans and options to meet the needs of a subscriber and the type of device used. In general, all pagers were given unique phone numbers while alphanumeric pagers were given an e-mail address usually consisting of the phone number.

Upon calling a phone number assigned to a pager, the calling party would reach a recorded greeting with an option to leave voice mail or send pager codes. Almost instantaneously, the paged person would receive an alert emanating from the pager with the phone number to return the call and/or a pager code. In the case of e-mail paging, the text would be displayed.

Numeric pagers are the simplest of the type of devices offering only a numeric display of the phone number to be called and pager codes; Alphanumeric pagers are essentially modified versions of numeric pagers with sophisticated display to accommodate text. These devices would be given an e-mail address to receive text messages.; Two-way Alphanumeric pagers are alphanumeric pagers with the ability to send text messages typed in with a small keyboard.;

Most modern paging systems use simulcast delivery, by satellite controlled networks. This type of distributed system makes them inherently more reliable than terrestrial based cellular networks for message delivery. Many paging transmitters may overlap a coverage area, where in contrast cellular systems are built to fill the holes. When terrestrial networks go down in an emergency, satellite systems continue to perform. Because of superior building penetration and availability of service in disaster situations pagers are primarily used by life saving first responders.

Pager use in the 21st century

Pagers are still in use today in places where mobile phones typically cannot reach users and in places where the operation of radio transmitters contained in mobile phones is problematic or prohibited. One such type of location is a large hospital complex, where cellular coverage is often weak or nonexistent, and where radio transmitters are suggested to interfere with sensitive medical equipment. Some common environments in which pagers are still used are:

Read more at Wikipedia.org