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How does pagers deal with dead spots? Since they seem to only be receivers it would be hard to guarantee delivery? I Googled a little and understood that it wor

How does pagers deal with dead spots? Since they seem to only be receivers it would be hard to guarantee delivery? I Googled a little and understood that it works a little different than cell towers, in that every tower transits the same message at the same time, a little similar to how FM-radio works. Interestingly enough it seems like 5G will operate in a similar fashion, albeit a little more modern, where at least the client can talk to multiple towers at the same time and send and receive from multiple towers as well.

numpad0 7y ago
I believe they don't? The most basic types of pagers are receive only device just like a FM radio is. The network is supposed to be sufficiently loud and clear and practical, and that's it.
hannob 7y ago
It doesn't. I owned such a thing in an area where the reception was poor back in the 90s. It just meant that it wasn't very useful, because I usually didn't get the messages.
femto 7y ago
In typical use the person being paged makes direct contact with the sender once the page has been received. It's better than guaranteed delivery, in that the direct contact from the recipient closes the loop "completely", and guarantees that the message has not only been delivered but also read, understood and acted upon. The attempt to page continues until the contact has been made. It's an old technology but it works. Large parts of the world are still installing new paging networks as their old ones reach end of life. Part of my day job is designing the equipment for such networks.
- dTal 7y ago
  Er, no - verbal confirmation of delivery, in the event it succeeds, is not better than guaranteed delivery; it is strictly worse. If the message gets dropped you have no way of knowing - you might be waiting forever.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    Er, no - Nobody waits forever. People are not computers stuck in a for loop waiting for input. If a response isn't received in an expected amount of time, then the sender takes the appropriate action. People are far better at dealing with faults than any automated mechanism.

numpad0 7y ago

I believe they don't? The most basic types of pagers are receive only device just like a FM radio is. The network is supposed to be sufficiently loud and clear and practical, and that's it.

hannob 7y ago

It doesn't. I owned such a thing in an area where the reception was poor back in the 90s. It just meant that it wasn't very useful, because I usually didn't get the messages.

femto 7y ago

In typical use the person being paged makes direct contact with the sender once the page has been received. It's better than guaranteed delivery, in that the direct contact from the recipient closes the loop "completely", and guarantees that the message has not only been delivered but also read, understood and acted upon. The attempt to page continues until the contact has been made. It's an old technology but it works. Large parts of the world are still installing new paging networks as their old ones reach end of life. Part of my day job is designing the equipment for such networks.

dTal 7y ago
Er, no - verbal confirmation of delivery, in the event it succeeds, is not better than guaranteed delivery; it is strictly worse. If the message gets dropped you have no way of knowing - you might be waiting forever.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  Er, no - Nobody waits forever. People are not computers stuck in a for loop waiting for input. If a response isn't received in an expected amount of time, then the sender takes the appropriate action. People are far better at dealing with faults than any automated mechanism.