reilly@AQUA.WHOI.EDU (Brendan Reilly) (03/09/88)
Has anyone had success using a nationwide paging service. My experience so far has been that this industry is just starting up, and that bugs need to be worked out. Is anybody out in front of the pack with a working system?
phillip@UUNET.UU.NET (Phillip Keen) (03/17/88)
In article <8803100903.AA09479@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, reilly@AQUA.WHOI.EDU (Brendan Reilly) writes: > > Has anyone had success using a nationwide paging service. > My experience so far has been that this industry is just > starting up, and that bugs need to be worked out. Is anybody > out in front of the pack with a working system? Nationwide paging services are new, and so they need many improvements and fixes. -- Thanks, Snail Address: Phillip Keen Phillip Keen 2705 Martin Pasadena, TX 77502
mgrant@cos.COM (Michael Grant) (03/17/88)
A while ago I did some research on nationwide paging. I found 2
contenders at the moment. There are atleast 2 others, Queue and
Megamessage which I was told were not worth looking into. Queue's
system is based on FM SCA's which just don't work well. I was told
that Megamessage wasn't really fully up yet, that might have changed
in the last couple of months.
Metrocast
---------
This company uses a pager which scans 14 frequencies in the 150 MHZ
range. This technique allows them to use already built paging systems
to expand their market. They say they have fairly complete coverage
in all of the major metropolitian areas. Their pagers are strictly
alphanumeric.
Pager rental:
$23.00 / month
Service:
$17.00 / month + $1.50 per page (numeric or alphanumeric)
or
$39.50 / month + $1.50 per alphanumeric page (UNLIMITED numeric paging)
This means:
$40.00 / month + 1.50 per page
or
$62.50 / month + 1.50 per alphanumeric page (unlimited numeric paging)
National Satelite Paging
-------------------------
This company uses a 900 MHZ pager with satelite down links. The
coverage is not nearly as complete as Metrocast, and they do not offer
alphanumeric paging at this time but will in the future.
$25.00 one time connect fee
Pager rental:
$15.00 / month
Service:
$33.00 / month + $0.50 / page
or
$57.00 / month for unlimited paging
This means:
$48.00 + .50 per page per month
or
$72.00 per month flat rate
Summary
-------
The advantage to NSP over Metrocast is that your pages go to the
entire country always, (but NSP tells me that this is going to change
in the future). The advantage of Metrocast over NSP is the coverage
area. With Metrocast, you tell it what area-code you will be
traveling in, and it sends your pages there. Both have an 800 number
for which you can review your pages in case you missed one. Metrocast
operates a 24 hour answering service which you can call to receive
missed pages. Metrocast uses an alphanumeric pager, but you can send
it only numeric pages if you want. This permits you to only use the
premium alphanumeric paging on an as needed basis.
I hope this helps you in your quest for information.
-Mike Grantclark@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Roger Clark Swann) (11/14/88)
Just reading the newspaper here and came across another one of those ads
for a NATION-WIDE paging service. This one is from METROCAST (R) -
Nationwide Alphanumeric Paging. I have seen these ads many times in the
past and have wondered how they work. Surely the target receiver is not
paged all across the country... Does the person initiating the page need
to know what city the receiver is in ? What happens when the receiver is
on board an airplane, high in the sky?
***** ***** ***** * * * *****
* * * * * * * * * * Roger Swann
****** * * ***** * * * * * *** The Boeing Co.
* * * * * * * * * * * Aerospace Div.
******* ***** ****** * * * *****
uucp: uw-beaver!ssc-vax!clark voice: 206/657-5810desnoyer@Apple.COM (Peter Desnoyers) (11/17/88)
In article <telecom-v08i0180m04@vector.UUCP> ssc-vax!clark@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Roger Clark Swann) writes: > >Just reading the newspaper here and came across another one of those ads >for a NATION-WIDE paging service. [...] Surely the target receiver is not >paged all across the country... Some companies do. >Does the person initiating the page need to know what city the receiver > is in ? If paged in one city, yes. In return, you pay less for the page. >What happens when the receiver is on board an airplane, high in the sky? You lose. I think. Peter Desnoyers disclaimer - this has nothing to do with Apple.
mgrant@cos.com (Michael Grant) (11/17/88)
Does the person initiating the page need to know what city the receiver is in? If you have a Metrocast pager, and you go to another city, you are responsible to call an 800 number and tell it what area-code you are in. National Satelite Paging broadcasts the message throughout the country. I do not know how CUE does it. What happens when the receiver is on board an airplane, high in the sky? With Metrocast and NSP, there is a way to replay previous pages over this 800 number. Last I looked, (about 6 months ago), NSP and Metrocast were the only 2 nationwide paging companies that really had systems working. CUE has a system up, but I'm told it's not very usable--lots of lost pages. -Mike Grant
dorn@gatech.edu (11/22/88)
>>Just reading the newspaper here and came across another one of those ads >>for a NATION-WIDE paging service. [...] Surely the target receiver is not >>paged all across the country... > Some companies do. Most companies do. I have used a couple of different nationwide paging services. The best working one was Cue system, which distributes the paging data stream by satellite to a large number of cities. In each of the cities, the paging data stream is modulated on to a subcarrier of a large FM radio station. My pager would scan the FM band for a radio station with the specific recognizable subcarrier and monitor the stream of data, listenening for its number and page data. If it couldn't find one, it would say so on the display, so I would know I was out of range. > >>Does the person initiating the page need to know what city the receiver >> is in ? > If paged in one city, yes. In return, you pay less for the page. No, absolutely not. You dialed an 800 number, entered the ID number of the pager, and then entered the number you wanted displayed on the pager. All pages go all places, but the data rate is good enough to handle it, plus it buffers them up. Sometimes, during busy parts of the day, a page could wait in the queue for 15 or 20 minutes before going out. >>What happens when the receiver is on board an airplane, high in the sky? > You lose. I think. Well, that depends,... I received quite a few pages while on cross country flights. The scanning action of the pager tends to lock on some FM station it can find, and when it loses that one, it scans for another. There are dead spots, but it works pretty well. Also, one of the technical folks for the paging company told me that they actually send each page a couple of times on 10 to 15 minute intervals, but that the pager can recognize a duplicate by some undisplayed serial number, so it only beeps on the first hit of a given page. This way, a momentary dead spot doesn't wipe you out. Alan Dorn Hetzel, Jr. gatech.edu!fabscal!dorn