NJS@ibm.com (Nicholas J. Simicich) (07/10/90)
My wife and I both travel a lot, but separately, and we frequently need to get in contact with the person who is out of town. I recall seeing advertisements for beepers which would work either everywhere in the US, in most major cities in the US, everywhere in the northeast corridor, and so forth. Ideal would be one that allowed you to leave a numeric message, like a number to call back at. Does anyone have any information on beepers of this type? (Monthly rates, difficulty of use, reliability, availability, cost-per-beep if extra, and so forth.) If you email to njs@ibm.com, I'll summarize. Nick Simicich (NJS at WATSON, njs@ibm.com) ---SSI #OWI 3958
cliff@cfa253.harvard.edu (Cliff Stoll) (07/24/90)
From article <9610@accuvax.nwu.edu>, by NJS@ibm.com (Nicholas J. Simicich): > My wife and I both travel a lot, but separately, and we frequently > need to get in contact with the person who is out of town. > I recall seeing advertisements for beepers which would work either > everywhere in the US, in most major cities in the US, everywhere in > the northeast corridor, and so forth. Ideal would be one that allowed > you to leave a numeric message, like a number to call back at. I know of two nation-wide paging systems: SKYPAGE and CUE paging. Similarities: Both let you receive numeric pages, up to 20 digits. Both have 800 number dial-ins to send pages. Both let you check for missed pages by calling an 800 number. Both interconnect metro centers via domestic satellite links. The pagers do not pick up signals straight from the satellite. Rather, these systems rebroadcast page signals over VHF or UHF transmitters in cities. The pagers won't work out in the countryside. Pages take about 30 seconds to 2 minutes to get through. Each system broadcasts its pages into all metro regions simultaneously (So you don't have to inform the system when you arrive in a new city) Differences: SKYPAGE paging relies on 900 MHz transmitters (I think these are a sub-band of the cellular service) SKYPAGE uses Motorola pagers which can beep or vibrate CUE paging uses FM broadcast subcarriers (88 to 108 MHz). CUE pagers use special pagers from Finland that only beep Although a good friend of mine works at CUE paging (and he's very proud of their system -- showed me how they interface into FM broadcasters), I carry a SKYPAGER, mostly because the local sales rep for Skypage didn't require a $100 deposit (CUE did). Local paging services (for Boston) typically costs $20/month. Nationwide paging services from either CUE or SKYPAGE costs around $45 plus 50 cents per page, or else $60 and unlimited pages per month. I've been entirely happy with this skypager. While on booktour, my publisher could reach me instantly and I wired it up to notify me when my computer had problems. In a year of using Skypager, the pager has missed only one page, and that happened while I was in a subway. Cliff Stoll cliff@cfa.harvard.edu