• ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place
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      2 months ago

      My company uses them regularly as one of their alarm systems when they need to notify the maintenance technicians of something that’s not working because they are reliable and work even if the phone lines are down.

      Why should people stop using them if they work?

      • Inktvip@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Also fire departments, hospitals and other medical services. They’re extremely reliable, last a very long time on a charge and don’t shatter when you accidentally drop it.

      • Fox@pawb.social
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        2 months ago

        How do you figure? A pager is just a way dumber phone, but it’s still a client on a cellular network like any other.

        • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          They aren’t though, pagers run in a separate frequency and their own towers with far greater range and penetration. Most aren’t even bi directional they just receive so there is no way to track them.

          Pagers have more in common with a transistor radio than a cell phone.

        • moncharleskey@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          The way I understand it, pagers are a one way device. When a message is sent to a pager it is broadcasted by the network for the pager to recieve, but there isn’t any sort of confirmation sent back to the tower, so they can’t really be tracked. That’s why they were in use prior to cellphones. These pagers ran on a AAA battery from what I understand, which wouldn’t last very long if it was having to constantly broadcast like a cellphone.

          • Fox@pawb.social
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            2 months ago

            Did a little digging and it appears the Hezbollah pages were POCSAG/FLEX which does indeed appear to be one-way, so that’s very possibly a reason why they were picked