Paging recommendation

Yes, it is a forgotten device, but I do carry a pager. I’ve had good service with AmericanMessaging, which in my area used to be Verizon paging. They have good coverage in New England on the 929.9375 frequency. Their regional frequency of 152.480 is also good, but I did notice I was missing pages in the Boston area sometimes. The 900 MHz frequencies work very well just about everywhere, and it is only a rare occasion where I miss a page.

Why carry a pager? The broadcast coverage can still reach places that cellular service can’t. Many times I’ve worked deep in buildings with electrical noise, and that makes cellular service problematic, if not impossible. Paging still seems to get through. There are usually higher powered transmitters in a paging system, and coverage areas of the transmitters overlap, and so that makes it a very reliable system.

I wouldn’t get a two-way pager. I’ve used them (both Verizon and SkyTel), but there is just not enough incentive for them to put receivers up to make the sending coverage match the receive coverage. SMS is much better for two way messaging. I think paging will always be around, but I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually companies start to only offer one-way paging. Two-way might only be useful in emergency situations, where cell networks would potentially be overloaded. However, if a situation like that happens, I’ll probably be digging out my Morse Code key and warming up the amateur radio. Well, actually, I’d be running Winlink and Pactor III first.