Pagers

rumpelstiltskin

Can you still buy pagers around Dublin?
I've always wanted one. Anyone know someplace I can get them?

phaxx

Don't know about pagers, but wouldn't a cheap prepaid mobile phone be a better choice?

Cake Fiend

Pagers = a bit 80's don't you think?

rumpelstiltskin

I just like them. I don't like mobile phones. Pagers are super.
I don't think they exist anymore though.

phaxx

Originally posted by rumpelstiltskin
I don't think they exist anymore though.

Probably a good reason for that.

Keeks

You can always move to the US where they are still popular...unfortunately!

Victor

Eirpage still operate from Donnybrook. Although at this stage I suspect most of their operation is an answering service. Doctors still use pagers in hospitals, but I suspect they use private frequencies.

http://www.eirpage.ie/ (under reconstruction)

MiCr0

ask seamus!

Dustaz

its a rip off.
70p to check your mesages? no thanks.
50p to call the pager number? Nah, ill wait till i see you mate.

Terminator

I think i read somewhere that the eirpage service is being phased out like 088 was.

rumpelstiltskin

Ah well, I suppose I will have to go and buy a stinking phone then...
So what's the cheapest piece of crap phone on the prepaid market at the moment?

leeroybrown

The advent of the text message kinda killed off the idea of the pager. Its pointless having a device for messaging when your mobile will do if for you.

seamus

As the only person here who won't be talking out of their hole......;)

Pagers are very much available from Eirpage. There was talk about phasing it out like 088, but I don't see how it could be accomplished........Loads of hospitals have no internal paging system, and pretty much every doctor in the country has a pager with us for emergency calls.

It works like this:- You get a pager, and an 01 phone number. When people want to leave a message, they ring your number and we answer in your name and send out a message to da pager. Most people just have their divert from the phone set up to go to us instead of voicemail. We also run an SMS paging service, where the message gets sent to your phone instead of pager, eliminating the need to carry around 2 gadgets.

Dustaz - I don't know where you got that pricing....... It costs around €20/month last time I checked. Obviously if you're ringing the 01 number it's gonna cost whatever, and diverts from your mobile cost you about 12p each time. The messages don't cost anything to have sent out. For me this works out cheaper than voicemail, because the notification text from them costs 10p, and then to ring the voicemail would be at least 5p, so......

The older numeric-only pagers are still available, but they're absolute shíte and obsolete.

I am very hungover today, so I've probably forgotten loads . Post again if you need more info.

The website is actually www.eirmessage.ie (Under reconstruction? - not anymore, they're gonna close it down in March)

leeroybrown

Well obviously the pager is still useful to doctors. I once saw one doctor carrying four of them (the reason still escapes me), but for the average phone user, they don't really have any use anymore.

Maybe if the paging services providers offer services that offer advantages for high users then maybe they do have something to offer.

As for me I'm sticking with my phone!

Victor

A lot of people may want to be contactable, but might want layers of screening. Also pagers would presumably be less likely to interfere with hospital equipment (as mobile phones can)

Seamus, what would the typical message sent to a doctor (or other customer) be?

"Please phone Eirpage" or

"Please phone 08X-XXX XXXX" or

"Please phone Mr. X's wife on 08X-XXX XXXX" or

"Mr. X has been admitted to A&E in St. Vincents Hospital, blah de blah de blah."

Dustaz

Sorry seamus, i was just remembering the stinking pile of steaming brown stuff that was Minicall (?) - Get a life, get a minicall

The_Bullman

Don't mobile phones interfere with heart monitors. A mate of mine who was admitted into casualty had to have his switched off because it distorted the heart monitor reading( i think it showed that he was dead)

seamus

Originally posted by Victor
Seamus, what would the typical message sent to a doctor (or other customer) be?

You had 2 right there. They're never asked to ring eirpage, it doesn't work that way

"Please phone Mr. X's wife on 08X-XXX XXXX" or

"Mr. X has been admitted to A&E in St. Vincents Hospital, blah de blah de blah."

Are the usual 2. It depends on the size of the pager. There are 80 chars max or 240 chars max. So if it was 80 chars we normally just send name + number, but with larger pagers we send more detailed messages, for example, Dublin-Wicklow Mountain Rescue uses the pagers to contact the entire team simultaneously with Grid Refs, info on training, etc.

{They removed the proxy from work after a 'security breach' from a German IP. I'm looking at you Baz_ . O NOE!!! No more boards in work for me }

Dustaz - those poxy minicalls are still available, and some loonies still use them, although calls are about 75% cheaper now, they're still useless.

halkar

Server down , mail sent, received by your PAGER , checked out, made few calls, server up , dialled in with hp jornado680, connect to server fiddle around for a while with terminal server and life goes on...:D

Just as doctors it is been used in IT and I think it will be for a good while..:)
And Eirpage is still there!!