• devilish666@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    37
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I don’t know why people still using pagers this day. Smartphones exist to replace that, even if you afraid to use smartphones because NSA/FBI/CIA/KGB tracking you could use dumb phone tho…
    Even dumb phone can achieve so many things compared to pager

    • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      2 months ago

      Maybe you could read the article and learn something:

      But the tiny electronic devices remain a vital means of communication in some areas - such as health care and emergency services, thanks to their durability and long battery life.

      “It’s the cheapest and most efficient way to communicate to a large number of people about messages that don’t need responses,” said a senior surgeon at a major U.K. hospital, adding that pagers are commonly used by doctors and nurses across the country’s National Health Service (NHS). “It’s used to tell people where to go, when, and what for.”

      Smartphones do a lot of things that might not be needed (look into how many different sensors they have). Sometimes a person doesn’t have access to a charger or time to charge a device and running out of battery could mean someone dies.

      • lemonmelon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 months ago

        To add to your point regarding additional functions inherent in smartphones: pagers do one thing. They’re relatively simple devices. Simplicity means that there are fewer things that can cause the device to function incorrectly or fail to function altogether. In hospital communications use-cases, this is a huge benefit.

        Additionally, pagers are relatively inexpensive. Therefore, it’s much more effective to have multiple spares available for distribution compared to smartphones. If a pager is inoperable, it can quickly be swapped out with a backup while the original is repaired or replaced. Smartphones do not carry that benefit.

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 months ago

      It’s because they are simpler devices which are much less infrastructure dependent, and also less power hungry. A single battery charge in a pager will last you much longer than a single battery charge on a smartphone.

      Also due to their lower infrastructure requirements they can function even if cellular networks are not functioning, at all or optimally.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        they can function even if cellular networks are not functioning, at all or optimally.

        When I worked for a cell company, our on-call technicians carried a pager that was on a different company’s network.

      • 0x0@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        if cellular networks are not functioning

        What networks do they use then?