[Scottish] 2 way pagers

[Andrew Back]

Not sure what application mandates use of a two way pager over a GSM
SMS/GPRS based solution. But if you want something that is not GSM based
then the only alternative I know of in the UK is the 'Mobitex' based
network operated by Transcomm (unless you can afford an Inmarsat terminal
or are a licensed radio amateur and can justify use of 'packet radio' for
the app).

Mobitex is a technology that has been around for some time and provides two
way data comms over a packet switched network (a la X.25 and GPRS),
it's pretty slow but reliable. IIRC service engineers from DEC
(--> Compaq --> HP, sadly..) used to have rugged field terminals that used
this network.

http://www.transcomm.uk.com/

http://www.mobitex.com/
http://www.mobitex.org

Andrew

----------------
Andrew Back
a at smokebelch.org

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Chris Binnie wrote:

> It's true about pagers becoming almost entirely outdated.
>
> We have a pager that our Duty Engineer has used when really poor mobile
> reception was expected. In the last couple of months we've received
> notice that the service is being discontinued as it's no longer
> economically viable due to the low volume of use. It's annoying as it
> was sold around six years ago as a 'lifetime service' where you just
> purchased the pager and the telecoms companies made their money out of
> the people that sent messages to it.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Below Zero 38 Montgomery Street Edinburgh EH7 5JY
> info at belowzero.biz 0845 1300 505 http://belowzero.biz
>
>
>
> >Pagers have been pretty much superseded by SMS now.  I think the only
> >people still using them do so for very specialised legacy reasons -
> >certainly all the engineers at work use mobile phone/PDA combinations.
> >
> >I haven't even seen pagers for sale for *years*.
> >
> >Gordon.
> >
> >
>
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