Pager Network

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DjShadow

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#6390 22-Jan-2006 17:53

Just a thought I had, Telecom is still marketing pagers off their website.
Are these now all designed for CDMA? Far as I knew they all use the AMPS network, and once its turned off next year, well you get the picture.

sbiddle

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#26887 22-Jan-2006 18:35

The paging network has nothing at all to do with the cellular network. Paging is completely different frequencies - 157.925MHz and 157.9500 Mhz for Telecom and several nearby frequencies for the other operators.

tonyhughes

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#26899 22-Jan-2006 21:32

As far as I am aware, the paging network will just keep on as it is now for quite some time. It works well, and is reliable.

Has nothing to do with 027.

Modern digital networks and other newer services render pagers obsolete for most users, but there is still a sizeable core of diehard users that do actually -need- them.

sbiddle

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#26908 23-Jan-2006 07:03

For example I'm a volunteer in the Fire Service and there aren't really any other alternatives to pagers. SMS costs a lot more, phones have to be charged every few days rather than a battery lasts for 3 weeks!

tonyhughes

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#26909 23-Jan-2006 08:09

sbiddle: For example I'm a volunteer in the Fire Service and there aren't really any other alternatives to pagers. SMS costs a lot more, phones have to be charged every few days rather than a battery lasts for 3 weeks!

And SMS is not a guaranteed delivery service, and in fact would prove far too unreliable for that sort of use.

I used to be a rural firefighter on the east coast... very rewarding.

sbiddle

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#26934 23-Jan-2006 15:39

Disenchanted:
sbiddle: For example I'm a volunteer in the Fire Service and there aren't really any other alternatives to pagers. SMS costs a lot more, phones have to be charged every few days rather than a battery lasts for 3 weeks!

And SMS is not a guaranteed delivery service, and in fact would prove far too unreliable for that sort of use.

I used to be a rural firefighter on the east coast... very rewarding.

Having said that in the early days the FLEX paging performance was very very poor as well. Telecom were pumping FLEX traffic through their network at a faster data rate (3200bps) with substancially fewer paging sites than Motorola's own specs recommended. As a result of this large numbers of FLEX messages were disappearing into thin air. Telecom had to reduce the speed of the FLEX network back to 1600bps to solve these problems.

It has surprised me that something along the lines of a GSM pager has never taken off. There have been a few units that have been developed over the years but none have ever taken off commercially. The big advantage would be when you have an SMSC that supports delivery notifications that you would know when the message has been received and subsequently read by the receiver.

the_nurd

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#26945 23-Jan-2006 17:30

does a pager go out of coverage?
if so, what happens if it does?

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#26949 23-Jan-2006 17:52

the_nurd: does a pager go out of coverage?
if so, what happens if it does?

Yes, pagers do go out of coverage. The paging coverage used to actually be better than cellular coverage but Telecom haven't built any new paging sites for a long time so that's no longer the case. When a pager goes out of coverage you just miss the messages and have no idea you've even missed them.

The NZFS actually have paging through Sky TV now to get alphanumeric paging to areas with no coverage. They uplink their paging data via Sky in Mt Wellington which is received by a modified receiver and then via serial in transmitted out via a paging transmitter on the fire station. Previously they would just have a local paging tramsitter on stn that would activate a tone pager but that meant anybody responding would not have call details until they got to station and called up on the radio.