A pager (often called a beeper) is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call. Alphanumeric pagers are available, as well as two-way pagers that have the ability to send and receive email, numeric pages, and SMS messages.[1]
The first practical pager was introduced in 1950 by physicians in the New York City area. The first pager system had a range of approximately 40 km (25 mi) and the physicians paid US$12 per month for the service. The actual pager device was developed and manufactured by Reevesound Company of New York and weighed approximately 200 grams (6 oz).[2]
Until the popular adoption of mobile phones in the 1990s, pagers filled the role of common personal and mobile communications. Today, pagers mainly support the "critical messaging" markets.
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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 are given unique phone numbers while alphanumeric pagers are given an email address, usually consisting of the phone number.
When calling a phone number assigned to a pager, the calling party reaches a recorded greeting asking the caller to enter a numeric message, and sometimes giving the caller an option to leave a voice mail message. The numeric message given is usually a phone number. Generally, the paged person will receive an alert from the pager with the phone number and/or a pager code within a few minutes. In the case of email paging, the text is displayed.
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, while cellular systems are built to fill holes in existing networks. 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 often used by first responders in emergencies.
Pagers are still in use today in places where mobile phones typically cannot reach users, and also in places where the operation of the 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, where radio transmitters are thought to interfere with sensitive medical equipment and where there is a greater need of assurance for a timely delivery of a message. The U.S. paging industry generated $2.1 billion in revenue in 2008, down from $6.2 billion in 2003.[4]
A pager technology in wide use today is the restaurant pager, usually from the beeper category. Mainly used in the hospitality industry, customers are given a theft-protected portable receiver which usually vibrates, flashes or beeps when a table becomes free, or when their meal is ready.[3]
Pagers have been popular with birdwatchers in Britain and Ireland since 1991, with companies Rare Bird Alert and Birdnet Information offering news of rare birds sent to pagers that they sell.
As is the case with many new technologies, the functionality of the pager shifted from necessary professional use to a social tool integrated in one's personal life. Within a short timespan, pagers evolved from a tool for "technocratic elites" to a tool used by "kids living in the projects"[5]
During the rise of the pager, it became the subject of various forms of media; most notably in the 1990s hip-hop scene. Upcoming mainstream artists such as Ice Cube and Method Man, along with underground acts such as A Tribe Called Quest began referencing forthcoming mobile technologies, in particular the pager. A Tribe Called Quest's single 'Skypager' directly speaks of the importance of such a wireless communication device. Q-Tip conveys that the skypager "serves an important communicative function for a young professional with a full calendar".[6] The smash hit "Bugaboo" from Destiny's Child also makes reference to pagers.
Pagers were a featured segment on the 1991 episode I Love the '90s: Part Deux. The segment explored the device's entrance into mainstream pop culture; it also discussed the humorous use of calculator spelling to send messages through the devices.
The growing popularity of cellphones in the early 21st century was accompanied by a corresponding decline in pager use by the general population. This shift accounts for Sam Flynn's amusement when Alan Bradley says "I was paged last night" in Tron: Legacy. Likewise, the 30 Rock sitcom character Dennis Duffy attracts disdain and mockery for his career as a pager salesman.
In the song 3-Way (The Golden Rule) by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island, Justin Timberlake states "You know I just got a page from a girl, That I met last week at the Pay-less".[7]
Pagers also have privacy advantages compared with cellular phones. Since a one-way pager is a passive receiver only (it sends no information back to the base station), its location cannot be tracked. However, this can also be disadvantageous, as a message sent to a pager must be broadcast from every paging transmitter in the pager's service area. Thus, if a pager has nationwide service, a message sent to it could be intercepted by criminals or law enforcement agencies anywhere within the nationwide service area.
Many paging network operators now allow numeric and textual pages to be submitted to the paging networks via email. This is convenient for many users, due to the widespread adoption of email; but email-based message submission methods do not usually provide any way to ensure that messages have been received by the paging network. This can result in pager messages being delayed or lost. Older forms of message submission using the Telocator Alphanumeric input Protocol protocol involve modem connections directly to a paging network, and are less subject to these delays. For this reason, older forms of message submission retain their usefulness for disseminating highly-important alerts to users such as emergency services personnel.
Common paging protocols include TAP, FLEX, ReFLEX, POCSAG, Golay, ERMES and NTT. Past paging protocols include Two-tone and 5/6-tone.
In the United States, pagers typically receive signals using the FLEX protocol in the 900 MHz band. Commercial paging transmitters typically radiate 1000 watts of effective power, resulting in a much wider coverage area per tower than a mobile phone transmitter, which typically radiates around 0.6 Watts per channel.
Although 900 MHz FLEX paging networks tend to have stronger in-building coverage than mobile phone networks, commercial paging service providers will work with large institutions to install repeater equipment in the event that service is not available in needed areas of the subscribing institution's buildings. This is especially critical in hospital settings where emergency staff must be able to reliably receive pages in order to respond to patient needs.
Unlike mobile phones, most one-way pagers do not display any information about whether a signal is being received or about the strength of the received signal. Since one-way pagers do not contain transmitters, one-way paging networks have no way to track whether a message has been successfully delivered to a pager. Because of this, if a one-way pager is turned off or is not receiving a usable signal at the time a message is transmitted, the message will not be received and the sender of the message will not be notified of this fact. In the mid 1990s, some paging companies began offering a service, which allowed a customer to call their pagernumber, and have numeric messages read back to them. This was useful for times when the pager was off/out of coverage area, as it would know what number paged you even if you never actually received the page.
Other radio bands used for pagers include the 400 MHz band, the VHF band, and the FM commercial broadcast band (88-108 MHz). Other paging protocols used in the VHF, 400 MHz UHF, and 900 MHz bands include POCSAG and ERMES. Pagers using the commercial FM band receive a subcarrier, called the Subsidiary Communications Authority, of a broadcast station.
Onsite Paging Systems in Hospitals Unlike wide area paging systems on site pager systems are local area services, hospitals commonly use on site paging for communication with staff and increasingly for calling waiting patients when their appointment is due (Patient Paging Systems). Patient Paging Systems offer waiting patients the opportunity to leave the waiting area but still be contactable. Reference: Patient Paging Systems