The pager was the popular method of wireless communication during the 1990’s, before the advent of the cellular phone as a popular device. Pagers were small, handheld devices that were capable of sending and receiving text messages and receiving voice messages. In the late 1990’s pagers became less popular as cell phones decreased in price and were increasingly available.
The pager was first invented in the 1960’s by John Francis Mitchell, who combined elements from both the Walkie Talkie and the car radio to develop the first pager.
By the 1990’s pagers became a common method of communication. Communication was handled either by a commercial carrier (such as with cell phones) or by a private system operator. Though commercial carriers offered slower delivery speeds, they covered more geographical area than private systems and could therefore be used in more places to increase the mobility of the technology. Pagers were either linked to a telephone number or email address, and were able to receive notifications and SMS messages via these methods.
There are six primary categories of pagers that range in complexity, price, and function:
- Beepers, originally called tone-only pagers, received its name from the beeping noise that it emitted as a method of notification.
- Voice pagers allow the user to listen to pre-recorded voice message.
- Numeric pagers display a number, up to 10 digits, such as the phone number of whoever is calling.
- Alphanumeric pagers are able to display on an LCD any text messages received via email or the commercial carrier or private systems.
- Response pagers allow the user to send a response message via a multiple-choice list of responses.
- Two-way pagers include built-in keyboards that allow for complete and unique responses to individual messages.
Though the consumer pager has long been in disuse due to the popularity of cell phones, pager technology is still often used in commercial settings such as restaurants and hospitals.