Chapter 2

THE HISTORY OF PAGING

The beginning of the paging industry can be traced back to the first land- mobile radio systems pioneered by the TDetroit Police Department, USA as early as 1921 when the concept of one-way information broadcasting was introduced. The 1930s saw the widespread use of radio paging by government agencies, police departments and the armed forces in the USA, using powerful transmitters to broadcast voice messages from a stationary location (base station) to a mobile unit. From a voice-broadcast service, paging evolved into a digital service with "addressing" whereby messages can be addressed to specific pagers.

Earlier models of radio pagers, such as Motorola's Pageboy I introduced in 1974, had no display screen nor any message buffering. Display pagers were introduced in the early 1980s. As tone, numeric and alphanumeric paging services evolved, paging codes also became standardized. To some extent, the steady growth of the paging industry could be attributed to the internationally accepted standard radio paging code, Post Office Code Standardisation Advisory Group (POCSAG), which was developed in 1976 by an international group of engineers. Two other codes, the GSC and 5/6-tone codes, are still being used in some markets, although to a smaller extent. FLEX, Motorola's next generation paging protocol, is designed to allow major new growth in the industry. Technologically more advanced than existing protocols, FLEX offers paging operators significantly faster messaging speed, greater capacity and reliability.

Paging systems have also undergone dramatic development. Radio transmission technology has advanced to the extent that multiple transmitter systems using simulcast techniques can now broadcast the same information from multiple transmitters on the same frequency at the same time.

The computer hardware and software used in radio paging systems have also evolved from simple operator-assisted systems to terminals that are fully computerized, with such features as message handling, future delivery, user-friendly prompts to guide callers to a variety of functions, and automatic reception of messages which are input through touch- tone phones.



NON-SELECTIVE OPERATOR-ASSISTED VOICE PAGING

Early paging systems were non-selective and operator-assisted. Operators at central control received voice input messages which were taped as they came in. After an interval of time, e.g. 15 minutes, these messages were then broadcast and received by all the paging system subscribers. This meant that subscribers had to tune in at appointed times and listen to all messages broadcast to see if there were any messages for them. Not only did it waste airtime, the system was inconvenient, labour- intensive, and offered no privacy.



SELECTIVE OPERATOR-ASSISTED PAGING

The inconvenience and lack of privacy associated with non-selective paging was overcome with the use of address encoders at the central control and associated decoders in the pagers. Each pager was given an address code and the message meant for a particular called party was inputted preceded by this address. In this way, only the party addressed was alerted to switch on his pager for the message intended for him. With selective paging, tone-only alert paging became possible. The called party was alerted by a beep tone to call the operator or a pre-arranged number, e.g. home or office telephone number to have the message read to him.



AUTOMATIC PAGING

Up to this point, an operator was always employed either to send the paging signal or to playback/relay messages meant for the called party. With automatic paging, a telephone number is assigned to each pager and the paging terminal can automatically signal for voice input, if any, from the calling party after which it will automatically page the called party with the address code and relay the input voice message.



TONE AND NUMERIC PAGING

Voice messages take up a lot of airtime and as the paging market expands, frequency overcrowding becomes a serious problem. Tone-only alert paging saves on airtime usage but has the disadvantage that the alerted subscriber knows only that he has to call certain pre-arranged numbers based on the kind of alert tone received. This is typically restricted to a maximum of four types. With the advent of numeric display pagers in the mid-1980s, the alert tone is followed by a display of a telephone number to call back, or a coded message. This increased versatility of the numeric display pager also means great savings in airtime usage as it is now not necessary to add a voice message after the alert tone. Presently, this is still the most popular form of paging.



ALPHANUMERIC PAGING

Alphanumeric pagers display alphabetic or numeric messages entered by the calling party or operator using a computer/modem combination or a custom page-entry device designed to enter alphanumeric pages. These input devices are not as common or affordable as the telephone set and constitute one of the main reasons why alphanumeric pagers have managed to capture a relatively small market presently. However, it is likely that the future expansion of alphanumeric paging will be realized based on its expanded usage. The likely applications include news and information services, wireless E-mail and facsimile.



IDEOGRAPHIC PAGING

Pagers capable of displaying different ideographic languages, e.g. Chinese and Thai, are also available now in the market. The particular language supported is determined by the firmware (computer programme) installed in the pager and in the page-entry device. The paging terminal used is similar to that used in alphanumeric display paging.



SUMMARY OF PAGER TYPES

The following describes the various pagers mentioned above.
Pager Type
Tone-only

Description
Pager alerts user; user takes predetermined action; such as calling a predetermined phone number.

Advantages

  • Simple to use
  • Very large channel capacity
  • People can be alerted to act when they are "on the go"


    Pager Type
    Numeric Pager Display

    Description
    Pager alerts user and displays numeric message; user calls phone number displayed

    Advantages

  • Flexible, user can be instructed to call any phone number
  • In the silent alert mode, the incoming message does not disturb others in quiet environments
  • Works in a noisy environment
  • Message can be read privately
  • Message displayed and stored
  • Less chance of missing or not understanding message
  • Reduces doubt, error, confusion
  • Message is saved for future use
  • Large channel capacity


    Pager Type
    Alphanumeric and Ideographic Display

    Description
    Pager alerts user and displays text message; user can then take necessary action

    Advantages

  • Same as numeric display; plus user receives complete, accurate text message, not just a number
  • Eliminates doubt, confusion, errors
  • Eliminates need for phone call to get message, and phone tag
  • User can screen messages and make better action decisions


    Pager Type
    Tone and Voice

    Description
    Pager alerts user; then delivers short (10-20 seconds) voice message; user can then take necessary action

    Advantages

  • User gets voice message with alert
  • Eliminates need to make phone call to get message
  • User gets message with page
  • Voice communicates messages most naturally
  • Voice is easiest for message sender to use
  • May identify voice of sender
  • Voice tone can convey urgency


    Pager Type
    Stored Voice

    Description
    Pager silently alerts and stores voice message for recall at user's convenience

    Advantages

  • User gets all advantages of voice plus silent alert
  • Message storage allows messages to be heard privately
  • Message can be reviewed later if received in noisy or quiet environment



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    Last updated: June 5, 1996