Watching the pager die

It was not so long ago that the pager was cutting edge technology. No longer exclusively used by doctors, the pager was everyman’s communication device of choice. This useful little gadget has apparently fallen from popular demand, however. Indeed, the experts confirm what the man on the street has long suspected. The era of the cell phone has usurped the market power of the pager. Marketing Director of Lisa Communications Ltd, Jerry Chin Lee, confirms that the paging market fell off quite a bit since TSTT made “calling party pays” on cellular. Before, both the caller and the receiving party would be charged for a mobile-phone call. Now, with only the individual who initiates contact paying for the call, this even more attractive package really inflicts a bullpistle lash on the already faltering pager marketability. Chin Lee noted though  that pagers are not the mainstay of Lisa Communications Ltd. About two years ago, he says, Lisa began to focus on internet business and the use of high-speed band width or broad band technology. “We aren’t ignoring our paging customers” he says. “Paging is still strong with the large corporations.”

Chin Lee went on to strongly advocate the use of pagers, noting that  they are both reliable and convenient. He pointed out that at times one might need to turn a cellular phone off, one  might be on a call and have the line engaged or one might be in a low service area, all factors which hinder efficient communication. Pagers, he said, facilitated proper time management. “With cellulars you lose control of your own time. With a pager you could determine the right time to return the call and avoid interruption. You could also prepare yourself.” Chin Lee would not say how much money his company was making from pagers. Some companies still regard the pager as a valuable business tool because of the high cost of cellular. Wireless is responsible for 80% of Open Telecom’s business with pagers bottoming out at a humble 10%. At  Page Communications, one official said, the market is not very good. As for the ubiquitous cell phone, TSTT now has as many as 340,128 active pre-paid TDMA customers, 60,416 active post-paid TDMA customers, and 16,107 active GSM customers. This is a tremendous growth since 1999 when the digital service was introduced and customers numbered a cool 27,864. Mobile service as a whole was first introduced to TT by TSTT in December 1991. Since then the technology has progressed considerably.