Using a Pager in the 21st Century

Re:Using a Pager in the 21st Century by dqv on Sunday May 02, 2021 @01:37PM (#27017112)

I wish someone would make a low powered cellular pager using an e-ink display, but then I realize only 3 people would use it. Pagers seem to be designed to actually wake you up if you get paged. I think the beeping hardware is different from the speaker hardware in cell phones. The vibration in phones nowadays seems weak.

The issues other people are describing with insecurity and lack of ack could also be resolved. The backend server that accepts messages could even support WCTP for backwards compatibility.

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Re:Using a Pager in the 21st Century by GekkePrutser on Sunday May 02, 2021 @08:42PM (#27020442)

I would use something like that.

I'm thinking of building a Pager with the pygo2 once it finally hits the market: https://pycom.io/product/pygo2/

It's got LTE-M which is perfect for this, and LoRa and SigFox as backup. A year's service is about $40

Unfortunately it's not untracked like the old pagers were but in return it should do confirmations and even replies somehow. I'll have to add a beeper/vibration motor and a stronger battery perhaps but I think it'll work.

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Re:Using a Pager in the 21st Century by sneak on Monday May 03, 2021 @02:34PM (#27028943)

The other problem with a cellular pager is that it permits the network operator to know the device's approximate location whenever it is powered on.

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