What types of messages?
The earliest units, usually called beepers, simply gave a tone alert. This was a signal to the wearer to, for example, call the answering service. The next step was units which could display numbers. While the most common use is to send it the phone number you want the person to call, you can, of course, add code numbers to mean anything else you’d want. For example, the number xxx-yyyy-1 might mean to call the xxx-yyyy number at your leisure. Xxx-yyyy-9 might mean call ASAP. The most recent units, called alpha-numerics, display complete written messages. So, for example, the pager could show the message: “please call home, you have a letter from the IRS.” There are also -voice- pagers which will let you actually speak into the phone and have it come out the person’s pager. These are pretty rare.
The earliest units, usually called beepers, simply gave a tone alert to indicate that the wearer should call a pre-determined number for a message. These have been replaced by newer technologies and are usually seen only in in-house applications like restaurant reservations paging systems. Next came units displaying numbers, usually up to 12 digits per The most common use is to indicate the number of the caller, but it has become common to encode messages in the numbers. Because some of these systems use sideband signals from broadcast FM stations these have the widest coverage and are still favored by users who must have the greatest accessibility. Newer units display alpha-numeric characters and support text messages with lengths in excess of 80 characters allowing meaningful messages to be sent to the wearer. Some of the newer pagers and services allow 2-way and 1.5 way messaging. For a brief period voice pagers were available, but these have been withdrawn from the market. • How ar
