Part of what makes pagers reliable is the fact that the technology has constantly evolved but has remained, relative to other forms of communication equipment, simple. The pager receives a signal from a transmitter and relays the information to the person with the pager. It’s a one-way communications device, so it can be very compact. There’s no need for complicated equipment such as a keyboard, microphone or anything else. In their simplest incarnations, pagers are oftentimes nothing more than a speaker and a receiver for the signal. This allows manufacturers to make them exceptionally rugged and, of course, to manufacture them with the knowledge that first responders will be relying upon them in life-and-death situations.

Not only do pagers themselves hold up to rugged conditions, pager networks hold up to conditions that render most other communications networks completely inoperable. For most people, it’s not hard to believe that a cellular phone network can be shut down because of too much traffic. In fact, anybody with a cellular phone has seen their service drop because they drove down an inconvenient valley or went into a building with too thick of a structure to allow cellular signals to pass through. Pagers, generally speaking, do not have this problem.

The pager network and the pager as a device are both very reliable. They are, in every regard, up to the standards that first responders will require to ensure that they can get the information being sent to them. No matter how many pages are sent over the network, data transmission does not slow down. Cellular phones are luxuries. Pagers, on the other hand, can be manufactured to the standards of the most demanding institutions in the world and, at the same time, manufacturers are constantly innovating new products and making them even better and more reliable than they were in the past.

Pagers are designed in a way that makes them very reliable and very easy to use. A voice pager can have an effective range of nearly 60 miles, even when there is only one transmitting tower. Transmitting towers can repeat each other’s signals so that the effective range can be extended far beyond that. This provides a much larger area of coverage than today’s cellular telephone networks or two-way radios. In addition to the larger area of coverage, pagers are one-way communication devices, which gives them significant advantages over two way communications devices in disaster communication scenarios.

During any kind of a disaster, usage of cellular phone networks and landline phone networks is likely to increase exponentially. This means that communications will be slowed down, if they are able to get through at all. Pagers are incredibly reliable in these situations. Because there is no upstream communication, there is no opportunity for the network to become congested with responses. Pages can be sent out efficiently and, no matter how many devices happen to be in range of any particular tower, they all receive the page. There is no congestion at all when receiving a page from the pager tower is concerned. This is part of the reason they remain the best possible solution for first responder organizations in disasters.

Pagers are also incredibly easy to use. A voice pager allows the person receiving the page to continue doing what they’re doing while still receiving all the information they need. Whether they happen to be driving or involved in any other activity, they don’t have to answer a phone, check an SMS message or take any other actions to know what’s going on and where they are needed. This makes pagers extremely convenient and effective as means of communication and ensures that responses are as rapid and as appropriate as possible in any given situation, no matter how much traditional lines of communication may be clogged up.

Despite their sometimes sophisticated designs, enormous durability and reliable performance, pagers are still much more affordable than cellular phones and other more advanced communications devices. In fact, even though cellular phones could technically be thought of as more advanced than a pager, they are, in reality, much different devices. Cellular phones, smart phones and other data communications devices rely upon a data network. Alerting networks are much simpler and much more resilient. These networks, in fact, can hold up to disasters that completely destroy data networks and even landline telephone networks.

When pagers are purchased in the quantity required to outfit a first responder agency, the economy of scale comes into play. Despite the fact that they are very sophisticated in many regards, pagers are very affordable. They also have a very long service life. Swiss manufacturers are famous for the reliability of the pagers designs that they produce and these can easily hold up many years of use and, of course, because first responders are being discussed, abuse. The conditions that pagers may be used in during an emergency would likely destroy most cell phones and other data communications devices. Pagers are so simple and reliable that they can be made enormously tough and in designs that hold up to incredibly trying conditions.

An alerting network and first responders outfitted with quality pagers represents a very sophisticated and reliable means of ensuring a rapid response. Pager networks are also famous for the tremendous distance that they can encompass and, in the worst-case scenarios, they can be expanded with additional towers and other equipment. For fire departments and hospitals that service a large area but have small budgets, reliable pager networks still provide the best way to ensure that responses to disasters are fast, efficient and that there is a minimal chance of a breakdown of the communication system, which serves the community by providing dependable emergency relief.

Mobile phones use a variety of different batteries, case styles and technologies to function. In situations where power is interrupted, keeping a mobile phone operational involves either turning it off intermittently to make sure that the batteries aren’t drained completely or finding some alternate means of charging it, which may not be feasible in the most serious of emergencies. Pagers, on the other hand, can function for months on the same batteries. Those batteries are generally the same AA or AAA batteries that you will find available in any store. Even in a situation where services are completely shut down, these devices can continue to function.

Pagers are very easy to use. There are few technical features to confuse the users and, because the technology is simple, it is also reliable. Voice pagers can notify an individual of an emergency where their services are needed and provide all the information they need to respond to it in the most appropriate way. Pagers that use text messages can provide even more information and, in many cases, you’ll find these used within hospitals and other facilities to notify doctors and other healthcare professionals of when their services are urgently needed and where.

These reliable and time-tested capabilities come at a very low price compared to many other types of communication technology. It’s feasible for facilities to own their entire paging system, which provides them with a very reliable and cost effective way to provide constant communication with vital personnel throughout the facility. On the scale of a municipality, county, state or even a nationwide scale, pagers provide the most reliable and simplest form of communication imaginable. New pager designs have a variety of features that increase the efficiency of organizations but, despite that, their core technology has been the standard for contacting emergency personnel for more than half a century.

Paging networks can handle up to 3,500 Watts of power. This increase in power means that the signal propagates farther and that it is more likely to penetrate buildings and other obstructions that one would find in an urban environment. In addition to the fact that pager networks are more powerful, pager networks also rely upon transmitters repeating signals so that a huge area can be covered. This means that, if first responders are spread across a wide geographic area, it’s still possible to reach them using a pager network when it might be impossible to get a hold of them over a GSM or TETRA network.

A cellular network requires that the devices attached to any given tower log in. Only a certain number of devices can be accommodated by any given cell. When there are too many devices, users will generally experience degradation in service or they will be disconnected completely. In situations where they cannot reach a cellular tower to establish two-way communications, calls will tend to be dropped or not received. All of these factors mean that a cellular network is simply not reliable enough for the needs of first responders.

Whenever a cellular phone user switches sells, they are handed off to another tower. Not only does the cellular network functioning depend upon the tower nearby the user being up and running, it also depends upon the other towers in the system being operational in order for that person to be able to receive service in other areas. On a paging network, there is no handoff involved. When a first responder is out of range of a particular transmitter, they simply receive the page from the next transmitter that is repeating the signal. Because the area of coverage is so broad, it’s very rare for a situation to manifest where a first responder is not accessible because of being out of range of a transmitter.

For example, reporting is a big part of assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of disaster communication. Using backup services, messages sent to pagers can be sent to other devices. These include cellular telephones, e-mail addresses and so forth. This provides a way for people the responsible for reporting to have a record of all of the pages received by an individual and to use that information for more effective reporting.

Another important feature of these backup systems is the fact that it accommodates one of the limitations in pagers as devices. Pagers are designed as alerting systems, not mass storage devices. They only hold between 16 and 32 messages on average. In some cases, the information that was sent in a page long ago may be vital. Having a backup system allows users to access their old pages and to check the information on them.

While pagers are of incredible used to first responders, second responders oftentimes need access to the information sent on a page, as well. Using some of the available systems, pages can be copied to second responders so that they get the same information, even though they don’t need it sent via pager. It could be sent to a phone, to an e-mail address or to another destination so that there is a record that the page was sent and received and so that second responders have access to this vital information.

Pagers rely upon a system of communication that has been in use since the mid-1950s. Even though this method of communication may be very well established, there are always new features being added to these devices. Without compromising their legendary reliability, it’s possible to extend their functionality via add-on services that allow the information sent over pager networks to be copied, stored and backed up. This is only one way that these devices have continued to improve over the years along with the services available for them and is a significant reason why they are still so relevant in today’s world.

SMS messaging is sometimes used as a means of emergency communication, though it is not as reliable as a pager. Civilians have successfully used SMS messaging to provide first responders with valuable information about the situation on the ground during disasters. While cellular networks will inevitably get congested during disasters, SMS messaging has a better chance of getting through, simply because of the lower quantity of data involved. It still, however, suffers from the drawbacks of cellular service. Principally, it is low power, low range and, in situations where networks are congested, there may be a long delay between the time that a message is sent and the time it is delivered.

Mobile phone services can be useful during disasters, but they are not the types of services that can be relied upon by first responders. In such situations, deploying responders to a disaster site and sending alerts is most effectively done through a paging system. Because of the design of the pager system, there’s no need to worry about how many people need to receive the message and there is no slowdown in message delivery based upon how many messages are being sent. In fact, it doesn’t matter if one or 1000 messages are being sent over the paging network, everybody will receive them without delay.

Mobile phone service can be useful to civilians calling for help and, in some cases, can supplement first responders with extra information about the situation during a disaster when a civilian is there to send reports. It cannot, however, replace the pager network in terms of reliability or power. Pagers will likely be the preferred choice by first responder agencies for the foreseeable future, due to their many advantages over cellular phone networks.

Pagers are sent messages by transmitters. These transmitting towers work in a fashion similar to how a flashing light or a ringing bell at the top of a tower works. No matter how many people are within earshot or within sight of the tower, they all receive the same message. A million people could be looking at the tower and they would all still see exactly the same flashing light. A pager network’s transmitter tower simply sends out a radio signal that is received by all of the pagers within range. One single message can reach any number of recipients and congestion on the system is never an issue.

As an example of this, on July 7, 2005, an operator in London was able to send nearly 200,000 pages within the span of two hours. According to reports, the pages were received almost instantly and there were no problems with the network related to any sort of congestion. At the same time that this was going on, people were unable to use their cellular phones due to network congestion and SMS messaging was severely compromised.

Being able to reach an entire fire department, and entire police force or any other large group of first responders is sometimes necessary, particularly in large-scale disasters, such as terrorist attacks, hurricanes and fires. Pagers still provide the best way and the most reliable way to accomplish this. Whether you need to call 5 people to the scene of a disaster or 50 first responders to an area that is in severe distress, a paging network can handle it. Disaster communication relies upon speed, efficiency and reliability. Pager networks provide all of this and, on top of all of it, they cost far less than mobile phones and other broadband devices.

Pager towers are relatively simple devices compared to the more complex cellular networks in use today. These towers can simulcast multiple signals. Because of this, they can be used to repeat the signal sent out by a distant tower and a chain of communication can be created that almost ensures that first responders will receive a page when they are needed in even the most chaotic situations. Pagers also have tremendously long ranges compared to cellular devices, which makes them much more reliable than even two-way radio communications in disaster situations.

In a cellular-phone network, the range of the device has a maximum of around 10 miles. Once that range is exceeded, the communication is handed off to another tower. If that next tower happens to be out of service, the call is dropped. This means that communications can be significantly impaired because of one tower being removed from service.

In a pager network, the devices sometimes have ranges as far as 60 miles. In an urban area, there will likely be a network of transmitters that are spaced much closer than this. This means that, if the tower nearest the person being paged happens to be taken out of service, they can still receive the page from a more distant tower. The reliability of the communication, of course, is somewhat diminished when it has to travel a longer distance but is still received in the vast majority of instances.

Having a network of pager transmitters simulcasting the same signal virtually ensures that first responders are always informed when they are needed. During the largest disasters in recent memory – 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina – pager networks continued functioning when just about every other form of communication was jammed with traffic or taken out of commission completely. These disasters provide good lessons as to why disaster communication still needs to be based around the very dependable and resilient design that characterizes pagers and pager transmitter towers. There is still no substitute for the reliability of this communications system in a disaster situation.

Pagers are famous for being able to receive signals from great distances away from transmitting towers. A pager is simply receiving a radio signal. It’s a one-way form of communication, which means that there’s no need for the pager device itself to be logged into the transmitting tower that it’s receiving a message from. In fact, even the pager transmitters can reach distances of up to 60 miles, and in some cases, a network can extend even farther than this with repeating services added in. Repeating tower simply carry a message received from a distant transmitter and retransmit it to pagers in the area.

The pager that emergency responders use is a selective device. It only receives pages on a certain frequency. It filters out any pages that are outside of the frequency designated. Pager towers may be sending out pages almost continuously, but only those devices that are tuned to the right frequency will receive specific messages. This allows emergency responders to be paged when they are a great distance away from the transmitting tower that their agency actually uses.

Pagers receive alerts from transmitters that are using very high levels of power, in some cases. Most of the time, a cellular phone tower will have about 100 watts power. A pager transmitter can have up to 3500 watts of transmitting power and, therefore, can reach very impressive distances. Between the simplicity of the communication, the fact that the transmitter is completely independent of the means used to receive transmissions and the fact that very high wattages can be used to power paging transmitters, these devices have very impressive performance where distances are concerned.

For disaster communication to be effective, it has to be able to withstand forces and events that would disrupt normal communications channels. Because pager networks are powered by radio signals, they are very resilient. Transmitters are not dependent on landlines to get messages out, and in many cases, some transmitters are outfitted with generators to ensure that they keep functioning in the event of a power outage. Unlike cellular telephone networks, pagers are not dependent upon low-power towers that can only handle so many connections at the same time.

Pagers use a form of communication that allows a limitless number of pagers to receive the same information from the transmitting tower without any disruption or slowing down of service. In some instances, literally well over 100,000 messages have been transmitted in periods as short as a couple of hours, and service has been maintained throughout. This is an enormous amount of communication and, even with the most advanced broadband networks in the world, it would be a significant and likely disastrous draw upon any data communication system.

For healthcare facilities, first responders and other organizations that need to be assured that they can receive vital information in any situation, pagers are still standard equipment. They have a variety of features available for them today but, at the heart of it, the technology that powers these devices is so basic and so well understood that it has an incredibly solid and genuinely impressive reputation in the worst situations. Setting up transmitting towers can be done quickly and, in an emergency, agencies with the right equipment can even erect towers temporarily to revive constant communication with first responders, no matter how much damage the city has suffered or how much communication infrastructure has been affected.

SMS alerting is sometimes used as an alternative to pager services by agencies that have limited resources. The problem with SMS alerting over traditional cellular networks is the fact that those networks, in the event of disasters, can become clogged with traffic to the point that no communication can get through. In some areas, cellular service may be spotty and, because of that, messages may not get through at all. This means that agencies that rely upon cellular networks for communication are putting themselves in a situation where they may well not be able to get a hold of anybody they need in the event of an emergency.

Pagers can be provided with SMS alerting services but they still rely upon the pager system itself to notify individuals that they are needed. This makes them incredibly reliable. The messages can get through in areas were cellular phone service cannot penetrate and, if the pager network is part of the public network, nationwide coverage is an option. The messages sent out to page first responders are simple, and do not require a great deal of data to be carried. Best of all, there is only one signal that needs to be sent out. No matter how many people are being paged, that one signal can reach each of them, provided they are within range of the paging tower.

For agencies that have limited resources, pagers are the least expensive and most effective means of staying in touch with first responders. The devices are also small and easy to carry and easy to operate. If you’re responsible for an agency that is struggling with a budget and struggling with a way to keep contact with necessary personnel, modern paging systems provide a host of services that can greatly enhance the usability of the devices and increase the efficiency of the agencies that use them.

In some areas, relief workers may be spread out across a wide area. This is particularly true in rural areas where many of the workers may be volunteer firefighters or EMTs that live a long way from the nearest town. Pagers provide an exceptionally reliable and simple form of notification that can be transmitted over a large area. Some pager systems can get up to 60 miles of coverage. This advantage in terms of the distance that the signal can carry is complemented by another advantage of pager notification systems: the simplicity and resilience of the actual communications system.

In order for a cellular phone to keep connected to a call, the signal has to be handed off from one tower to the next. Each of these towers has a very small range, oftentimes around 6 miles to 10 miles maximum. In an emergency, cellular phone networks are oftentimes clogged with traffic and, aside from that, the range is so short between one tower and the next that people can easily slip out of coverage areas without even knowing it. If relief workers are not available because they have gone outside the range of their cellular phones, disaster communication may be impeded and response times may be increased dramatically.

A pager uses a system that has been described as similar to someone ringing a bell in a tower to alert a community of danger. Even though everybody in the community gets the signal, there only needs to be one origination point and the number of people receiving the signal doesn’t do anything to impede the efficiency with which the signal travels. Pagers work on a similar design. A signal is sent out from the paging equipment and is received by the pagers that disaster personnel wear. No matter how many people are using the cellular phone network, the Internet connections or the landlines, there is no interruption in service and there is no chance that network congestion will delay receipt of the signal. Between the tremendous reach and the efficiency of the communications model, there is no substitute for pagers.

During a crisis, it’s common for broadband data networks and the cellular devices attached to them to start failing. This is because the tremendous amount of traffic that is generated by people communicating about the disaster tends to bring the network down. In these situations, customer support lines are flooded with calls, resulting in long queues and situations where customers cannot get through at all. If an emergency responder agency is relying upon these communication devices to get in touch with needed personnel, the danger is obvious if both the network and the support system for the devices are failing.

Companies that provide pagers are generally set up so that they can accommodate emergencies. There are currently over 2 million disaster relief personnel, including first responders and healthcare providers that rely upon pager networks for disaster communication. These networks are supported by customer service that is designed with the needs of emergency responders in mind. Customer service is offered around the clock and ensures that, if there ever is a problem, technical expertise from the company that provides pager service is always available. The combination of a reliable network, a reliable product and reliable customer service make pagers the preferred choice of first responders and disaster relief organizations.

At the same time that the organizations that rely upon pager networks get all these benefits, they also pay less for the service. Most of the time, any sort of a contract with a cellular provider is going to have to be long-term and the expenses are going to be very high on a per handset basis. A pager network, by contrast, is extremely affordable to operate and the pagers themselves are affordable. In addition to being affordable, pagers are extremely durable, particularly those that are designed to be used by disaster relief personnel. All of these elements conspire to create a situation where the choice in communications technology for first responders and healthcare organizations should be obvious. Pagers have numerous advantages and an impressive track record of performance.

According to the 9/11 Commission’s report, pagers provided the most reliable form of communication during the terrorist attacks of September 11. The problem noted in the report was that most firefighters are not issued pagers. Two-way radio traffic was congested and, as most people are aware of from media reports, cellular phones were largely rendered inoperable due to the incredible amount of traffic the networks were receiving. In such situations, little can be done to remedy the problems with forms of communication that fail to provide consistent performance. Pager services, however, have a design that makes them ideally suited for even the worst natural and human caused disasters.

Two-way radios and cellular telephone networks can both be overwhelmed very easily. Radio frequencies can become so saturated that nobody can get through and cellular networks can be so clogged with data that service drops off completely. A pager network is a one-way form of communication. In the design of a pager system, a message is transmitted from a tower and received by all of the pagers within range. There’s no difference if 10,000 emergency responders happen to be within range of that tower. They all receive the same message and there is no network congestion involved. It’s simple, effective and has been in use heavily since the 1950s, so it’s definitely been tested as a design for communication.

First responders need a reliable way of receiving vital information during a disaster. Supplying firefighters, EMTs and other professionals with pagers is, according to many reports and many studies, the single best way to ensure that channels of communication can be kept open with them in even the most dangerous circumstances. A voice pager provides an easy, economical and incredibly effective way to make certain that nobody is cut off from communication or from vital information when every other form of communication has been overwhelmed or taken down outright by the amount of activity on the network after a disaster.