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TLDR ooh Amazon has pagers, I wonder how? Are there any pager networks left in the US? I've always been interested in them out of historical curiosity because

TLDR ooh Amazon has pagers, I wonder how? Are there any pager networks left in the US? I've always been interested in them out of historical curiosity because I was too young to use them when they were actually a thing, but from what I understood, pagers are pretty much not a thing anymore.

Nbox9 6y ago
I wouldn’t expect a modern pager to operate on the same technology as older pager. Pagers are a thing and they have there uses. I’ve heard of a physical pager being used to symbolize who is “on call”, and a team of engineers will pass the pager between themselves. I’ve seen restaurants pass out pagers to people waiting for tables. I’ve heard talk about some medical/emergency personal still using pagers. I imagine pagers are probably used in highly secure communications (military, statecraft), because the thing being paged doesn’t have to give away it’s location, or even the fact that it received the message.
- kitteh 6y ago
  Yes, modern pagers do operate on the same tech (pocsag/flex) for the last few decades. And for the most part, are clear text. There are posts on HN about this in the last year.
spelunker 6y ago
Hospitals still often use pagers - they're deemed more reliable than cell phone networks. I don't know if that's actually true or not but there you go.
- xxpor 6y ago
  The big advantage is they're one-way, so their range is much further since you don't need the pager to send stuff back to the tower.
kitteh 6y ago
Yes there are totally pager networks alive and kicking.
dastbe 6y ago
Nobody that I know carries a physical pager anymore. You have the option of specifying an arbitrary number of pageable devices that are either * the paging app * sms-based text * phone call as well as what order and with what delay you want them to attempt to engage you. iirc you need at least two options such that in the event of an issue with one network/application they have an alternative means of potentially reaching you.

Nbox9 6y ago

I wouldn’t expect a modern pager to operate on the same technology as older pager. Pagers are a thing and they have there uses. I’ve heard of a physical pager being used to symbolize who is “on call”, and a team of engineers will pass the pager between themselves. I’ve seen restaurants pass out pagers to people waiting for tables. I’ve heard talk about some medical/emergency personal still using pagers. I imagine pagers are probably used in highly secure communications (military, statecraft), because the thing being paged doesn’t have to give away it’s location, or even the fact that it received the message.

kitteh 6y ago
Yes, modern pagers do operate on the same tech (pocsag/flex) for the last few decades. And for the most part, are clear text. There are posts on HN about this in the last year.

spelunker 6y ago

Hospitals still often use pagers - they're deemed more reliable than cell phone networks. I don't know if that's actually true or not but there you go.

xxpor 6y ago
The big advantage is they're one-way, so their range is much further since you don't need the pager to send stuff back to the tower.

kitteh 6y ago

Yes there are totally pager networks alive and kicking.

dastbe 6y ago

Nobody that I know carries a physical pager anymore. You have the option of specifying an arbitrary number of pageable devices that are either * the paging app * sms-based text * phone call as well as what order and with what delay you want them to attempt to engage you. iirc you need at least two options such that in the event of an issue with one network/application they have an alternative means of potentially reaching you.