Alphanumeric pagers offer the capability to receive a complete message or information/data. However,
there are factors limiting its widespread use currently. First, the input device in the form of a PC/modem
combination or a custom page-entry device designed to enter alphanumeric paging is not common or
cheap. Therefore callers usually have to suffer the inconvenience of going through an operator to input
their messages. This is time-consuming, labour-intensive and lacks privacy. Then, even if the input device
is made inexpensive and easily available, it is still not as simple to operate as the telephone instrument.
The industry awaits the development of a voice recognition device which will enable callers to send
alphanumeric pages without the transcription process. At the receiver end, the alphanumeric pager when
used on its own also limits the amount of information/data which can be displayed.
However, it appears that the use of the paging system to transmit information and data offers the greatest
potential for the expansion of the paging industry. It promises wider, newer and more useful applications
of paging at a very low cost. Listed below are examples of the newer and more innovative applications of
paging for information/data transfer. Most of these are applied already, though not on as large a scale as
the paging industry would like them to be.
The future points to pagers offering more features, better capabilities and taking on newer forms. There
will also be wider, more innovative applications of paging, many achieved through combining paging
technology with other technologies.
The paging market is also differentiating into low-cost, simpler consumer paging products and services;
and higher-cost regional, national or international services and messaging/data transfer services.
Pagers integrated into cellular phones and second generation cordless telephones (CT2) have already been
developed and marketed, but in the future there will likely be more widespread usage of these devices. The
alphanumeric pager in the cellular phone affords the user the capability to screen an incoming call,
allowing him to determine if, when and where he should return the call. Integrated into CT2 handsets,
pagers enhance their usefulness as they effectively add the capability to receive incoming calls on these
phones, designed primarily for making outgoing calls only.
With the introduction of small radio modems, pagers are also being integrated into palmtop and pen-based
computers. This overcomes the shortcoming of having limited display capacity when a pager is used on its
own and it also opens up a host of new application possibilities, some of which are described in a later
section.
Looking further into the future, we should be seeing more of sophisticated pagers such as those which can
operate on more than one frequency (auto-scanning receivers). These will be useful when a user roams
through multiple paging systems, pagers which support high speed voice transmission and pagers which
can acknowledge reception of a page.
In parallel with awareness building, retail distribution strategies are being developed by some service
providers as effective channels to reach consumers in mass markets with large numbers of potential new
customers. In addition, retail is generally a relatively low-cost strategy because of commission structures,
ability to move inventory and strong market power. This in turn offers a low-cost solution to consumers, a
necessary condition to attract personal users.
For the convenience of users, pagers will be increasingly distributed through retail outlets of
merchandising chains to tap the developing personal paging market. Pagers are now available in a variety
of colours and form to appeal to parents and young people who would like to stay in touch with family and
friends. They will become as common as a walkman radio, a camera and other consumer electronic
products. Pagers in some countries are now available through mail order and even from vending machines.
Retail has become one of the better strategies in increasing market penetration and consumer awareness,
and it will continue to play an important role in the paging industry.
In terms of services available, mobile data and information services will definitely become a reality in
many developed markets in Asia. Other new services proposed by operators in the USA include enhanced
one-way services such as low- and high-resolution graphics, video, electronic mail, fax, digitized voice, the
ability to encrypt messages and acknowledge reception of the message.
High speed signalling is borne out of the market requirements for higher capacity of paging systems to
cope with demands for alphanumeric and data transmission services. However, limited existing channel
capacity poses a bottleneck to such revenue opportunities. Motorola's FLEX high speed paging code
answers such a requirement without the need for operators to invest heavily in upgrading their existing
systems. More discussions on FLEX can be found in Appendix C.
With alphanumeric transcription, a service in which voice messages are typed out and transmitted to
alphanumeric pagers, the need for a convenient input device is eliminated. Markets where alphanumeric
services are profitably enjoying good penetrations like Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and, to a
smaller extent, Hongkong are all offering operator-assisted alpha services. While start-up costs may be
high, service providers can easily work out the long-term numbers and find that margins are acceptable.
With alphanumeric pagers, operators can provide information such as news headlines, sports scores,
betting results, weather and stock and forex market updates with the use of group calls which can
sometimes be transmitted at off-peak traffic hours at a relatively low cost.
It is expected that the growth in this area will be tremendous in the next few years, especially with the
trend towards decentralized corporate organizations and the introduction of small radio modems to fit into
laptop and pen-based computers. Motorola has introduced Electronic Mail Broadcast to a Roaming
Computer (EMBARC), a nationwide information network in the USA which permits the use of a receiver
like the NewsStream Advanced Information Receiver (an alphanumeric pager specially built to integrate
with palmtops as well as personal computers) to receive wireless mail.
Mobile data communications provided by a paging network can in the same way be used to send faxes
directly to the paging system subscriber. Similarly, sales and pricing information, customers' file
information, stock quotes, news headlines, weather forecast and any other important information can be
updated constantly and remotely. A travelling executive's calendar built into a laptop can be kept updated
remotely by the office. The wireless data link can also be used to turn devices on and off, be it a data
collection instrument, light, pump, gate, alarm or advertising panel.
Mobile data communications will elevate the service level of paging operators to new heights. They will
no longer simply be in the paging business, but also involved in mobile data and mobile information
services. With the development of the new Telocator Data Protocol (TDP), paging can now be connected
to the PC industry with a potentially enormous new user base. A pager linked to a PC is an intelligent
pager, and consequently, it becomes much more resourceful than a dumb receiver.
Voice mail enhances the capabilities of pagers beyond their normal capacity. A voice mailbox used in
conjunction with a tone-only pager allows the caller to leave a long and detailed message, which otherwise
cannot be done with the memory limitations of normal pagers.
This voice message storage system is an attractive alternative to a tone and voice pager as the tone-only
pager is very much more efficient in its usage of airtime. It also overcomes the problem of listening to
voice messages from tone and voice pagers in a noisy environment.
The paging network is one such system, albeit with only one-way capability. The PCN/PCS currently
attracting a lot of attention and research efforts are:
With the anticipated flourishing of pocket-sized portable phones and multifunction "personal
communicators" supported by these sophisticated PCN/PCS, what are the implications for the future of
simple pagers?
It is likely that the future remains optimistic for the following reasons. Paging technology is simple, low-
cost but effective, satisfying most users' needs. It is also a mature service which is easily extended through
combination with other technologies to provide new services. The proliferation of mobile cellular phones
in the 1980s did not affect adversely the paging market, but instead enhanced it. Pagers are now
commonly used as a call-screening device in complement to cellular. The widespread use of cellular raised
the consciousness of people to the value of mobile communications. In the same way, it is anticipated that
the effect of PCN/PCS likewise will not be adverse. In addition, paging has several advantages over PCN.
With its access to large subscriber bases, paging can offer PCN a large initial source of subscribers. Paging
systems are optimized to locate pagers and send messages and this will help extend PCN's handset location
capability beyond larger metropolitan areas. Also, the good wide-area coverage of paging systems offers
PCN the capability of wide-area messaging.
Advanced paging and messaging services will be a range of services with a niche in the PCN market place.
Though the future is hard to predict, paging will continue to be a viable service and a part of the alliance of
personal communications services.
Copyright 1995, 1996, Motorola, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
BENEFITS OF USING A PAGER
Freedom
Reduced Stress
Increased Competitive Edge
Peace of Mind
Improved Productivity
CURRENT APPLICATIONS
The majority of pagers are used for the purpose of contacting someone on the move. The most popular
type of pager used for this application is the numeric pager which displays the telephone number to call
back after alerting the paging subscriber.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
To cope with increasing competition and demand for quality, up-market services, new transmission
techniques and new coding formats are being developed which will increase transmission
speeds/information rates and improve reception reliability and coverage. With improved speed and better
pagers, the trend towards alphanumeric paging is inevitable, which in turn will bring about more data and
messaging services.
One-Way Communication
One likely trend is for operators to offer advanced one-way data communications services, such as point-
to-point and point-to-multipoint data transfers. Downloading spreadsheets to an end-user or a group of
users is a good example. In this respect, a pager is essentially a wireless modem minus most of the
ordinary functions of a normal pager. The implication of this trend is that pagers will become at least an
optional feature of computer systems. Mobile data communications over a paging network will always
have a competitive advantage over two-way systems because of lower costs to both users and operators. It
will definitely find its niche in the market, especially with the advent of more software development to
drive the data/information services.
Two-Way Communication
Even the traditional definition of paging as a one-way communication device may have to be revised when
it sheds its passive role and becomes an active receiver offering two-way communication. Future pagers
may compete more aggressively with other two-way technologies, such as cellular and PCN. They could
either have a limited two-way capability such as acknowledgement upon reception of a page, known as
acknowledgement paging, or a full two-way capability in sending and receiving data.
FUTURE TRENDS
With more than 51 million paging subscribers worldwide, major paging markets in the world, many of
them in Asia, continue to expand rapidly. Emerging markets with huge population bases such as China and
Indonesia are still far away from the high penetration rates experienced by economies such as Singapore
and Hongkong, while countries like India and Vietnam have just started to join the rest of Asia's dynamic
economic boom. The next three years are likely to see the doubling of the paging subscriber base in Asia.
Pagers
More pagers will be designed to look visually appealing and trendy as it is recognized that there is a large
potential market segment other than the business community. For the personal use of those which include
family members, women, students and sportsmen, among others, pagers integrated into belts, pens,
watches, key chains, jewellery, credit cards and calculators are more attractive, especially if offered with
extras such as composable musical alerts. Improvements in battery life will remove restrictions in physical
size and weight of pagers in the future.
Retail Markets
Pagers in most Asian markets are generally available from outlets maintained by paging operators
themselves whose main targets are business users – business services, health care, construction,
sales/marketing, transportation, delivery services and real estate industries. Demands in such traditional
segments in some Asian markets are reaching saturation point, and unless new segments or new services
are developed, the industry would approach maturity quickly. Personal users form one of the potential
segments which operators can exploit to gain higher penetration rates, especially in metropolitan markets.
With marketing programmes to promote higher awareness of pagers and their benefits to consumers,
service providers will be able to tap potential mass markets and enjoy the returns.
Enhanced Services
Paging services also will experience steady development from local to regional and even international
markets. Most of the Asian markets cover mainly local requirements at the moment. Regional or national
coverage can now be found in Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and more recently, Indonesia.
International services are now available between Singapore and Hongkong, both of which are linked with
the USA, Canada and Mexico, with extension into Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia in the near future.
Paging Infrastructure/System
The trend in Asia is moving in the direction of integrated auto-access/operator-assisted paging systems as
well as high speed signalling. This will give the best of both worlds. This trend is brought about by
modernization of the telephone systems in most countries, the onset of new technologies which make better
use of airtime, the hunger for more information and the demand for more and better services by the general
public. Integrated auto-access/operator-assisted paging systems are more flexible and advantageous (than
auto-access or operator-assisted systems on their own) in serving the demands and needs of the paging
system subscriber.
NEW APPLICATIONS AND SERVICES
Market statistics show that more and more people are using pagers as a cost effective and reliable
communication device, and there is a definite trend towards users moving up from numeric to
alphanumeric services. Information providers are increasingly looking into the possibilities of data
broadcast to pagers as more and more people are using paging systems to transfer data to their remote
computers. With the use of pagers getting more and more integrated into our daily lives, we will be greeted with a host of new and exciting applications.
Alphanumeric Paging
Although alphanumeric pagers are not new in the market they have been showing impressive growths in
China, Indonesia and Thailand. In emerging markets where telephone penetration is relatively low,
alphanumeric paging offers an excellent alternative to telephones. In other markets such as Singapore and
Taiwan, low consumer awareness and resistance to high pricing of alphanumeric services are the primary
reasons for low penetration of alphanumeric pagers. Absence of convenient input devices adds another
dimension to the problem with alphanumeric paging in such markets. However, alphanumeric sales will
pick up as soon as consumers reach the point where they understand and accept the cost and benefits of
alphanumeric pagers. Rationalization of alphanumeric pricing will obviously expedite acceptance by
consumers.
NewsStream® and Mobile Data Communications
In wireless E-mail, messages are sent through the paging network to a pager integrated into a small
portable computer (e.g. palmtop). So instead of sending E-mail to a location, it is being sent directly to a
person through a wireless data link. Motorola's NewsStream Advanced Information Receiver is a good
example of such applications.
Voice Mail
A voice mail system can be integrated with the paging system to provide a value-added service. Under
such an arrangement, a caller inputs a voice message into a mailbox associated with the pager number. The
system then alerts the paging system subscriber (usually tone-only types) and lets him know of the
presence of a message in his mailbox. He can then retrieve it at his convenience.
PCN/PCS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR PAGING
Personal Communications Networks (PCN) are networks that allow mass communication between users
who are, in general, mobile. In the last two years, interest in personal communication has increased
tremendously and terms like PCS (Personal Communications System) and PCN have become buzzwords.
The emphasis is on providing wireless communication, i.e. communication between people rather than
equipment.
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Table of Contents ||
Chapter 1 ||
Chapter 2 ||
Chapter 3 ||
Chapter 4 ||
Chapter 5 ||
Chapter 6 ||
Appendix A ||
Appendix B ||
Appendix C ||
Glossary
Last updated: June 5, 1996