A pager would have the same triangulation-via-cell-tower and social-network-analysis-via-page-history vulnerabilities, right?
Not a one-way pager? My understanding is that one-way pagers (POCSAG, etc) pagers are "receive only".
Correct. That is probably why pagers are so popular with drug dealers.
The downside of a one way pager is that there is no way to know if the message got through. If you are in an elevator (or wherever) you simply never know of the page.
Re:The Problem with Mobile Phones
by richardwhiuk on Thursday April 30, 2015 @07:29PM
(#9468253)
They still need to communicate two way to the cell tower to receive pages. Pages don't get flooded to every cell all over the world!
One way pagers only work in a particular area of the world. In that area all the transmitters send all the pages. Such systems do not scale all that well and as a result getting pager service over a wide area can be fairly expensive.
Re:The Problem with Mobile Phones
by doctorshady on Thursday April 30, 2015 @09:37PM
(#9468864)
There's a few nationwide pager networks out there; they're quite easy to build without the task of making communication two way. Just set up a hundred or so watt UHF transmitter at an antenna farm, feed it with PSK or FSK from a satellite receiver, and boom! You just covered most of a large city.
Folks in thread: Thanks for the info on one-way pagers. That's interesting stuff!
This way I would only need to take my phone out of airplane mode if I happen to be in a location where I can't use another phone to return pages.