The end of pagers.

Author
Discussion

NiceCupOfTea

25,280 posts

250 months

Tuesday 21st February 2017
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I remember when I came to London in the mid-90s I bought a Nokia mobile phone as I was living in a place with no phone and was trying to get my career as a freelance musician off the ground. Had an argument with a violinist who thought I was an idiot wasting my money of a phone when all I needed was a pager like hers. Sometimes I think of her and wonder if she still has that pager and no mobile phone... hehe

Downward

3,490 posts

102 months

Tuesday 21st February 2017
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Still used cause some folk on call don't like having a mobile phone as they get their landline paid for them.

Bit old fashioned but hey ho.


daydotz

1,741 posts

160 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
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Ive a vodazap pager in a draw that still works so what will happen to it hehe

Edited by daydotz on Wednesday 22 February 13:57

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
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The network was still heavily used last year, asi was playing with my usb sdr receiver and some pocsag decoding software and there was loads of traffic on there. Mostly medical, financial, it and telecoms callouts. Angus council use a lot of pagers for their on call workers due to poor mobile coverage.

Brads67

3,199 posts

97 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
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Paul_M3 said:
Our power station still uses pagers for people on emergency call out. (The main reason being that mobile phones are not allowed on site).

I know that the RNLI still use them as well, and I'm guessing volunteer firemen as well?
EDF ?

Mothersruin

8,573 posts

98 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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I carry a pager for Mountain Rescue.

Works with the barest whiff of a signal that wouldn't get through to a phone.

Pints

18,444 posts

193 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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I only knew one person who had one; it was a chap at uni and he only had it so his mum could page him that his tea was ready.

hehe

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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Brads67 said:
EDF ?
If it is he probably won't be allowed to say.

Fetchez la vache

5,568 posts

213 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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Not used them for years, but have fond memories when working on mod sites with them as we weren't allowed to use those new fangled mobile phone things... Used to abuse the service no end, testing the spelling skills of the operators.

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't send that".
ho hum.

br d

8,388 posts

225 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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I had one of the original ones that didn't send messages, it just beeped. I actually splashed out on the monthly rental and got one that had 4 different beeps that you could assign to different callers. I was working on sites all over the East End and when it beeped I'd say "Ah that's Gary!" (or whoever) grab some change and run off up the road. I would then spend about half an hour legging it around the streets looking for an un-vandalised phone box and voila!

It seemed amazing, cutting edge technology at the time and I would boast to mates about it "Yeah, doesn't matter where I am the client can still reach me".

Brads67

3,199 posts

97 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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OldGermanHeaps said:
If it is he probably won't be allowed to say.
Why not ?

soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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The Spruce goose said:
I remember having a pager, used to ring it myself so I looked cool when it beeped.
Must have cost you a fortune. hehe

Paul_M3

2,356 posts

184 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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Brads67 said:
Paul_M3 said:
Our power station still uses pagers for people on emergency call out. (The main reason being that mobile phones are not allowed on site).

I know that the RNLI still use them as well, and I'm guessing volunteer firemen as well?
EDF ?
Correct. smile

Brads67

3,199 posts

97 months

Thursday 23rd February 2017
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Me also.

23 yrs, then 10 yrs offshore then back again last year.

I know a few at your place.

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Friday 24th February 2017
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Brads67 said:
Why not ?
Because you aren't supposed to discuss security measures at those sites with people with no cause to know. They make a big deal of it, drum it into you endlessly.

Brads67

3,199 posts

97 months

Friday 24th February 2017
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Saying that you carry a pager for call in isn`t a security issue.

And no, they don`t drum it into you endlessly.

Yipper

5,964 posts

89 months

Friday 24th February 2017
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Public pagers are pretty much dead.

But business, emergency and government "private" pagers are still used by thousands of workers in the UK.

They are cheap, fast, rugged, reliable, safer than phones, and cannot be used for Facebook slackers on worktime.

Some of those pagers will get replaced by smartwatches or wearables in the near-future.

OldGermanHeaps

3,801 posts

177 months

Friday 24th February 2017
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Brads67 said:
Saying that you carry a pager for call in isn`t a security issue.

And no, they don`t drum it into you endlessly.
They did in the role i was in.