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Who still uses pagers? (www.voanews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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[+] devilish666 -35 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I don't know why people still using pagers this day. Smartphones exist to replace that, even if you afraid to use smartphones because NSA/FBI/CIA/KGB tracking you could use dumb phone tho....
Even dumb phone can achieve so many things compared to pager

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe you could read the article and learn something:

But the tiny electronic devices remain a vital means of communication in some areas - such as health care and emergency services, thanks to their durability and long battery life.

"It's the cheapest and most efficient way to communicate to a large number of people about messages that don't need responses," said a senior surgeon at a major U.K. hospital, adding that pagers are commonly used by doctors and nurses across the country's National Health Service (NHS). "It's used to tell people where to go, when, and what for."

Smartphones do a lot of things that might not be needed (look into how many different sensors they have). Sometimes a person doesn't have access to a charger or time to charge a device and running out of battery could mean someone dies.

[–] lemonmelon 8 points 2 months ago

To add to your point regarding additional functions inherent in smartphones: pagers do one thing. They're relatively simple devices. Simplicity means that there are fewer things that can cause the device to function incorrectly or fail to function altogether. In hospital communications use-cases, this is a huge benefit.

Additionally, pagers are relatively inexpensive. Therefore, it's much more effective to have multiple spares available for distribution compared to smartphones. If a pager is inoperable, it can quickly be swapped out with a backup while the original is repaired or replaced. Smartphones do not carry that benefit.

[–] Draconic_NEO 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's because they are simpler devices which are much less infrastructure dependent, and also less power hungry. A single battery charge in a pager will last you much longer than a single battery charge on a smartphone.

Also due to their lower infrastructure requirements they can function even if cellular networks are not functioning, at all or optimally.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

they can function even if cellular networks are not functioning, at all or optimally.

When I worked for a cell company, our on-call technicians carried a pager that was on a different company's network.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

if cellular networks are not functioning

What networks do they use then?