The history of the pager. Paging in Russia now Why do you need a pager now

Now we are so used to smartphones that even staying for a few days with a stupid “dialer” is a real test. But in the past of telecommunications technology, there is one amusing, and very long, chapter: pagers.

Tiny receivers with black and white screens and scanty, by modern standards, capabilities. We will tell you how these gadgets evolved and why they are still in use today.

To begin with, it is worth understanding what is hidden under the definition “ pager". And why a modern smartphone that easily receives SMS messages is not related to it.

Yes, there are already people who do not know

A pager is a radio frequency receiver that can receive messages broadcast on a specific frequency over a dedicated network of radio base stations.

Messages are sent from a paging center - usually a person needed to call and tell the recipient's number to the operator. Later, it became possible to use email.

How did pagers come about?

The first pager from Motorola

Initially, the system, vaguely reminiscent of future pagers, appeared with the Detroit police in 1921. Then the cars of the guards were equipped with primitive radios.

However, the pager's birthday fell on 1949 when the corresponding invention was patented by the inventor Alfred Gross ( the same person had a hand in the development of portable radios). Then the name "pager" was not yet in use, and the devices were intended for medical personnel.

At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission approved the use of such receivers only by 1958: this is a turning point in their history.

Already in 1956, Motorola gave such gadgets the name "pager", and at the same time secured its leadership position in this product category - for four decades to come.

However, the first commercially successful pager it appeared on the consumer market only in 1974 and was called Pageboy I. It did not have a display or internal memory for storing messages, but it worked - notifying users with beeps.

Because of this feature, an alternative name was assigned to the devices, beepers. Such modest functionality was enough for that time. Having heard the necessary signal, the police returned to the department, and the doctors contacted the operators in order to obtain information.

This is what Pageboy 1 looked like

In the 1970s, pagers learned to receive messages of different tones and even voice messages. But technology continued to evolve at a leisurely pace. By 1980, there were about 3.2 million pagers in the world.

The reason for the relatively low popularity was the limited area in which the receivers could work - it did not exceed 40 kilometers... Pagers were used by local rescue, medical or police departments.

We also knew about this thing. Only a few

By the way, 1980 saw the first peak in the use of pagers in the USSR. Then the XXII Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow, and pagers were given to a narrow circle of employees. However, the main events developed overseas.

Pagers began to get more sophisticated in terms of functionality. Models with tiny screens appeared - at first, only numbers could be transmitted, then it was possible to send and short messages, in the manner of modern SMS.

In the early 80s, the creators finally overcame the geographical limitations of pagers - they began to work on the scale of cities, states and even countries.

In addition, the sender could order the sending of a message at a specific time or repeated calls - so that the subscriber would certainly receive the message, even if temporarily outside the coverage of the paging network.

At the head was Motorola, which in 1986 released the world's most popular pager model, the Bravo.

In 1988, SkyTel officially launched a nationwide text messaging paging network in the United States, sparking a buzz among consumers. By 1990, there were about 22 million active pagers in the world, by 1994 this number had already reached 61 million.

The pager became a status device - in addition to its functional benefits, it brought importance to its owner in the eyes of others. The latest major technological innovations in the world of pagers are tweigers, two-way pagers.

They vaguely resembled push-button communicators and were equipped with a folding QWERTY keyboard, with which it was possible to type reply messages.

This is what the popular SkyTel Tweiger looked like.

The first Tango tweager was released in 1996 by Motorola, with telecom support from SkyTel. However, by that time it was clear that mobile communications and cell phones would replace pagers back into the professional environment.

By 2001, two leading manufacturers, Motorola and Glenayre, had lost interest in the market.

Phones won.

Are the pagers dead? No

In the United States, pagers continue to be used by doctors, police officers, rescuers, and a number of private companies, and Spok became the leader of the dying market, which brought in $ 361 million in 2009.

By the way, if you look closely at "Doctor House" or "Clinic", you will notice that all the doctors in the show wear pagers.

This connection has several advantages:

highest reliability, incomparable with vulnerable telecommunication networks
cheap devices
the ability to easily record all sent messages for later use in protocols
with an average frequency of use, pagers live up to 30 days on one AAA battery

As for domestic realities, the period from 1993 to 1998 became the golden age for pagers. They were a popular way to stay connected without spending over $ 1000 on a cell phone.

Pagers were usually fastened to a belt - some were literally wrapped in a belt of small black beepers. The market for devices stylized for them also flourished: for example, among schoolchildren, watches in the form of a pager were especially popular.

At the same time, the required telecom infrastructure for pagers was poorly developed... Over the years, not a single federal paging operator has appeared in the country.

Local companies worked, at best covering the region and adjacent territories. The average subscription fee ranged from 100 to 300 rubles, a lot of money at that time. To this should be added the cost of the device itself, which was at least 800 rubles.

Pagers can still be used today

Now most paging operators have closed or changed course: in addition to providing paging services for private security or courier companies, they organize call centers.

However, in Moscow, for example, you can still use the services "

The era of pagers is long gone, only memories remain of it. At least in Belarus. In many countries with a developed telecommunications market, these communications are still used today. Why? They are more resistant to failures and significant loads, for this reason pagers are used by rescue services, doctors, service personnel, and so on.

We can only remember these squeaking boxes, the appearance of which among the younger generation will most likely cause the question “what is this?”. Or, as in the case of a cassette player, "why do you need it when you have a mobile phone?" Yes, mobile phones and then smartphones have supplanted "warm tube" pagers from our lives, but there is no escape from nostalgia.

"Neki", "Motorola", cool 4-line pagers, 7-line pagers that did not take root, memes (in the past they were called "pearls"), born during the dictation of messages to operators, and then broadcast on the radio ... A whole layer of culture that has become history ...

"You forgot your pager at home"- a loving mother or a vigilant spouse could send and not like that.

Onliner.by decided to remember how it was: the most difficult thing was to find the person who stood at the origins of the “Belarusian pagers” and to get the consent to remember the past. Some former employees of paging companies hold high positions in companies providing cellular services, and can hardly find time to communicate, someone does not want to stir up the past.

However, we still managed to get in touch with Igor Krivonos, who worked as the CEO of one of the most advanced paging companies of that time in every sense - RadioPage. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then: nevertheless, the era of paging in Belarus ended more than 10 years ago, but there is something to remember.

"Officially" pagers appeared in Belarus in the mid-90s of the last century - later than in the rest of the world, but they managed to find their audience. "As everything is advanced, pagers reached us with a delay",- recalls our interlocutor.

At some point, seven companies were operating in the country, which is a lot for the local communications market. Before velcom entered the market in 1999, everything was going as well as possible, and even with the start of this operator's work, the situation did not change much: mobile phones were expensive, like communications. Well, BelCel was the “first” and at the same time the “operator for the elite”.

Pagers have become a symbol of a business person, technological progress - devices were a more massive product than phones, they gave a new sense of mobility, and provided a constant connection with the world. Now it sounds ridiculous and even ridiculous, but in those distant times everything looked different.

“Yes, in 2000 there was already some decline, but it was not particularly noticeable: the price for paging remained more attractive than for cellular communications. But since 2003, that is, after the arrival of MTS in 2002 with its 30 rubles per minute - and this is without VAT, there was a sharp failure. "

Paging rates were low and much more affordable, for the device itself you had to pay $ 15-40. Some companies took marketing steps or other tricks: someone sold "used" devices from a neighboring country, someone rented the devices. Be that as it may, the “personal call receivers” seemed more practical than mobile phones: they were more compact and could go without recharging for a long time - especially in comparison with BelCela's brick phones.

“Maybe it sounds strange, but then there was a large category of people who basically wanted to have a pager,- says Igor. - One-way communication had its own charm. Imagine: a specialist who should only receive information, nothing more. Now people just talk on the phone. And in the pager there is an element of freedom: the message could be “not noticed” (“did not reach”, “did not reach completely” - underline the necessary), which cannot be done with a mobile call ”.

Despite the downturn, the system remained profitable and rewarding. According to the expert, a paging boom was observed in Canada, the USA, Australia and China, when in Belarus it lost its relevance. The explanation is simple: this technology can cover large areas. The tower, installed in Minsk on Partizansky Prospekt, for example, reached Baranovichi - a radius of about 120 km.

The coverage was of high quality (with certain reservations, of course), but additional devices had to be used to amplify the signal. And if there were special antennas, the highly educated Kulibins came up with their own version, or, as they say now, a life hack: wrap a pager with a wire, and pull the end up - the inductive coupling does its job. The students had their own "life hacks": they used pagers to pass exams - the days of high-tech cheat sheets began.

Today it takes a lot of work to unsubscribe from a heap of information services, mailings, but in the days of pagers, various providers of content also worked, which could be received both for free and for money. Weather forecast, distribution of jokes ...

Paging subscribers were happy to subscribe to them and were happy with the squeak that was heard when the message arrived. The main thing is that this happens in full view of everyone, and then it was possible to make a smart look of a business person (of course, really business people treated the device differently). “We even had an agreement with a 'witch' - we called her that. She made up our horoscopes ",- Igor grins. For corporate clients, operators offered their "buns". For example, a big boss could announce a general gathering by calling a “spam” mailing for all subordinates.

How many subscribers did paging companies have? Now it is difficult to find such statistics, but the same "RadioPage" issued numbers starting with 120 thousand. Add subscriber bases of other operators here - and a considerable audience will come out. It's hard to imagine what they did ...

“The most fun time began in the evening. The husband must return home, but he is still not there. Wives began to look for their men - and whatever they dictated ... We kept the most interesting messages[laughs - approx. Onliner.by] ».

It's hard to imagine, but at the peak of its activity, up to 120 operators worked in the company's call center, who heard a lot of funny things. At the same time, they tried to bypass sharp corners in all available ways: they met personalities warmed up by alcohol (or emotions) who, well, were not at all shy in expressions, but the addressee of all the subtleties of such a speech could not appreciate.

"" And let's replace the word "cattle" with "you are a bad or dirty animal" "- I had to get out of difficult situations like this,- Igor explained. - Simply put, it was necessary to find a compromise between the requirements of the law and the interests of the client. Of course, sometimes it was difficult to prove to the caller that writing "bastard" is not very polite. "But what a" bad man "he is - he is a real bastard!"

By the way, only girls worked on the phone: for guys, this job was not particularly suitable for a number of reasons, and clients were more comfortable talking with girls.

Why are pagers extinct in Belarus?

Interestingly, the operators themselves understood that uncontrolled competition could ruin the entire business: excessive dumping, for example, would have a bad effect on the direction as a whole. Those who ignored the unspoken rules were gently pointed out the error. "We had to avoid extremes - monopoly and thoughtless competition when there are too many market participants."

“Around 2004, I cannot say more precisely, a provision was adopted, according to which strict rules were introduced for the payment of the used frequency resource”,- says our interlocutor. Then two cellular operators were working with might and main, which probably pushed the regulator to take certain steps. However, they did not take into account the fact that paging operators had disproportionately lower profits and did not operate a wide frequency range.

“The calculation formula was such that practically all the money was spent on paying for the frequency resource and the companies began to close down. MDF was the first to close, small operators left, who did not even have time to break through, we were one of the last. " They also failed to push through the idea of two-way paging - it was hacked to death, and mobile operators, probably, were actively promoting their interests.

There have been attempts to reorient the business, but no one has achieved much success. Some services - for example, GPS-tracking of cargo and cars - did not take root (although there were positive results in "catching" stolen cars). Probably, the market at that time was not ripe for such technological solutions, and the price for the equipment seemed high. Someone went to Internet providers, someone was engaged in the supply of entertainment content for cellular subscribers. But what was, it was.

Today in Belarus there are companies that have internal paging, probably someone provides services to a limited number of clients: you can get a license for this type of activity, and it is not a problem to provide technical support either.

The question remains: how soon will mobile phones die out and what will replace them?

Reprinting of the text and photos of Onliner.by is prohibited without the permission of the publisher. [email protected]

Pager

Pager(from English page - page) - the receiver of a personal call. The pager is designed to receive messages sent over the paging network. In order to send a message to a pager, you need to dial the operator's phone, provide the number or name of the subscriber and dictate the message. Each pager in the System is assigned an individual code, which serves as a kind of address through which the transmitted information reaches the desired subscriber. The message for transmission is received by phone or e-mail to the System operator, who sends it over the radio channel to the paging network with the indication of the recipient's individual code. The message can only be received by the pager - the owner of the given code. The volume of transmitted information can reach several hundred characters, the duration of the transmission is several seconds. The pager has a memory that allows you to record received messages and then view them at any time convenient for the user. It is significantly cheaper than a mobile phone and is very convenient in cases where two-way communication is not necessary, for example, to call emergency teams in case of accidents on power lines, gas and oil pipelines, to communicate with vacationers in the country in the absence of a telephone, to notify residents of coastal villages about an impending storm.

The world's first pager was released by Motorola in 1956. The first pagers were adopted by hospital staff and managers. Then everyone who wanted to be always available got pagers.

In the Russian Federation, pagers were quite popular in the 1990s. In 1993-97. they were a fashion accessory and a sign of success, and in 1997-99. spread almost everywhere and became commonplace. In the early 2000s, due to the proliferation of mobile phones and the decline in the cost of mobile communications and SMS pagers, pagers practically disappeared from use.

Advantages

Paging communication has a number of advantages over cellular communication:

low cost of communication;
safety: the absence of a transmitter in the pager (there is only a receiver) makes it difficult to determine the location of the device;
autonomy: AAA batteries, and less often AA batteries, last about a month of pager operation (with an average intensity of use).
saving frequency resource: in trunk and cellular networks, one frequency (with a channel width of 25 kHz) has a resource for servicing 25-50 subscribers, in paging - 10-15 thousand subscribers (in POCSAG format) and 40-80 thousand (FLEX).

There is the so-called "two-way paging", which implements the ability to send short messages directly from the subscriber equipment.

Links

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Synonyms:

See what "Pager" is in other dictionaries:

- [eng. pager Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Shaitan box Dictionary of Russian synonyms. pager noun, number of synonyms: 2 auto pager (1) ... Synonym dictionary

I called someone. Zharg. pier About the desire to go to the toilet. Maksimov, 141. To fall / fall on a pager to a coma. Zharg. pier Shuttle. Drink on credit or at someone else's expense. Nikitina 2003, 490. Below the pager. Zharg. pier Shuttle. About hitting below the belt. Maximov, 275 ... A large dictionary of Russian sayings

- [pe], ah, husband. An individual receiver with a display for establishing one-way communication with a subscriber through a computer system. | adj. pager, oh, oh. Pager communication. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

1) signaling radio warning system; 2) communication device. EdwART. Automotive Jargon Dictionary, 2009 ... Automotive Dictionary

pager- pager, pl. pagers, genus. pagers ... Dictionary of pronunciation and stress difficulties in modern Russian

pager- Individual device for receiving alphanumeric information. Topics information technology in general EN pager ... Technical translator's guide

PAGER- a portable radio receiver designed to receive speech information with its display in the form of alphanumeric text on the built-in screen (scoreboard). P. has a memory that allows you to memorize and view previously received messages. Each P ... Big Polytechnic Encyclopedia

A device for radio reception of voice messages with their display on the screen (usually liquid crystal) of the built-in display. Serves as a terminal device for the Personal Radio Calling System, works only for reception. Essentially it is ... ... Encyclopedia of technology

- [pe], a; m. [eng. pager from to page call, call]. Miniature wireless device for receiving and recording text messages. * * * pager (from the English page page), a portable radio receiver designed to receive voice information from ... encyclopedic Dictionary

After several years of lull, a paging operator is back in operation in St. Petersburg. Excom-Neda Paging is confident that they will not be affected by the fate of other participants in this once-developed market. The operator intends to survive by means of new services and reanimation of old, proven services. Cellular communications have replaced pagers in almost all Russian regions: paging operators no longer work anywhere except in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, analysts believe that paging services still have their own narrow niche, although they will no longer be able to go beyond it.

In 2007, PT-Page and Excom-Neda Paging merged in St. Petersburg, as a result of which the only paging company operates in the city. In 2008, the operator completed the modernization of its equipment and, according to the company, is ready to start providing the most modern paging services. This sounds strange in itself. However, some organizations are still opting for pager communication. According to the director of Excom-Ned Paging Grigory Dubrovin, it is stupid to completely abandon the pager - in Europe and the United States, emergency services are actively using it. "Our main clients in St. Petersburg are dispatching, emergency and courier services, as well as security companies," he says. Thus, from the category of mass services, which paging was in the late 90s, the service has become a specialized offer for corporate clients.

Dubrovin noted that over time, the list of services provided by the paging network has been updated. So, now more and more subscribers order receiving messages not by a pager, but by a cell phone (in the form of an SMS) or to their e-mail. However, the operator also retained a unique "paging" service, when each subscriber is assigned a separate city number and messages can be sent to a pager without the participation of a dispatcher. "In my opinion, there are several reasons why other paging operators have closed in St. Petersburg - this is the inability to properly diversify the enterprise and business processes, as well as the inability or unwillingness to negotiate with other companies operating in this segment," he said.

IKS-Consulting analyst Maxim Savvatin told the St. Petersburg.ru correspondent that today not only the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the police and ambulance services become clients of paging operators, but also the media, public organizations and government bodies - hot lines are organized for them using a pager ". The advantage of the pager in this case is the low cost of communication and the extremely high network bandwidth, which exceeds that of cellular networks. However, iKS-Consulting emphasizes that paging services have already occupied their niche and do not pretend to be more. Often these companies earn the bulk of their income from other telecommunications services, in particular, they lease the capacity of their call centers.

Representatives of cellular operators refuse to take seriously even the possibility of competition from paging networks. "Once the operators had a service of sending a message to a pager, but for several years now it has been closed," said Maria Georgievskaya, press secretary of the St. Petersburg MegaFon. According to her, as a kind of niche offer, paging has a right to exist, but in the mass market, the development of SMS services at one time did not leave the pager a chance. "The telecommunications market does not know any other service that would bring such a profit with minimal investment," Georgievskaya said.

Operators of the "Big Three" in St. Petersburg provide tariffs with cheap SMS (Red_text from MTS, "Monster of communication" from "Beeline") or ordering packages with SMS, the payment for which is made with bonus points, like MegaFon. We would like to remind that in 2007 the share of SMS and MMS in the total volume of additional services of Russian cellular operators was 54%.

The pager, on the other hand, is configured not to exchange, but to receive messages. It is a paging receiver that receives messages over the paging network. To send a message, you need to contact the dispatcher, indicate the number or name of the subscriber and dictate the text in English or Russian. The paging network is built on the same principles as the cellular one. The stability of the reception is ensured by the base stations.

It is noteworthy that paging communication helps to save the frequency resource. So, in cellular networks, one frequency (with a channel width of 25 kHz) has a resource for servicing 25-50 subscribers, and in paging networks - 10-15 thousand subscribers (POCSAG standard) and 40-80 thousand (FLEX standard). The cost of a subscription service, including a prepaid message package (at least 500), largely depends on the pager model. So, for a 1-line pager the subscriber will pay about 200 rubles, for a 4-line pager - 400 rubles. per month. The networks also provide for the transmission of messages without using a pager (from 250 rubles).

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“Pepsi, pager, MTV” - this phrase of Decl, the idol of the youth of the 2000s, best characterizes the period of the late 90s - early 2000s. At that time, cell phones were just beginning to take over the Russian market, and mobile communications were very expensive. Pagers served as an alternative to mobile phones. These are miniature radios that could receive text messages thanks to the company's paging operators.

We explain the principle of their work: you need to call the operator's room, name the subscriber's number (each device in the system is assigned an individual code), and then dictate the desired message. It will be delivered in a few seconds.

Ask: "How do you respond to a message?" No way. Of course, you can remember the so-called tweigers, two-way pagers that allow you to send messages in response, but now we are not talking about them.

In the USSR, paging devices appeared in the late 60s. They were used in the ambulance, as well as in some government agencies, such as the KGB. However, pagers became widespread in the run-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Then the British company Multitone launched the Radio Search network in Moscow, which helped the officials to quickly coordinate their actions.

The "golden" era of pagers in Russia began in the 90s. In 1994, the first Russified pager MIT-472 (by the way, from the aforementioned Multitone) went on sale. The device cost about $ 380 and could receive messages up to 7500 characters in Russian and Latin alphabets.

On average, the subscription fee was $ 40-60, connection - $ 10-20, although some companies did it for free. Subscribers were also offered to connect services such as exchange rates, city weather, traffic conditions and even a program of evening clubs.

With the advent of cell phones, the popularity of pagers began to decline. Prices for mobile phones have become more affordable, and the need for one-way sending of messages has disappeared over time - it has been replaced by SMS messages. Nevertheless, pagers continue to be used to this day. For example, in the United States, hospital workers (hello, Clinic and Doctor House), police and rescue workers have them. Let's say more, the producer of the site, Kristina Zadorozhnaya, discovered that even the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, has his own pager, to which anyone can send a message.

Photo chronicle TASS / Rogulin Dmitry

There are still two paging companies operating in the capital - Telecomt and Inform-Ekskom. The first has been on the market since 1991, and the second has been operating since 1992. Unfortunately, firms no longer sell miniature radios. Inform-Ekskom simply continues to serve old subscribers (although they get calls once or twice a month with a question about buying). Telecomt, on the other hand, is the only company on the Russian market that provides services for the creation of paging systems.

In an interview with the site, Telecomt's general director Leonty Ogarok noted that the devices are now used mainly by doctors (for example, in the Kremlin hospital to instantly call an employee) and operatives. They also found a place in the corporate sphere and nuclear energy, where fire brigades, technicians and other personnel receive notifications by pager.

Ogarok named the main advantages of paging communication simplicity, reliability and speed. Messages are received almost instantly, which is why they continue to be used where this parameter is critical. As for the security forces (the American FBI), there are pros and cons. It is not difficult for attackers to intercept messages from pagers (although they are usually encrypted in the classical way), but they do not emit radio waves, which means that it is almost impossible to detect a person. In addition, until the pager sends a message, it is not fixed on the network. This allows you to act stealthily and quickly.