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From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Cellular Phones of the Future
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Date: 20 Nov 90 19:49:17 GMT
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Jon Allen <jrallen@devildog.att.com> writes:

> As a side note, I would think that in cities of the future,
> small/cheap phones would be the death of the pager business (although
> I see people in Hong Kong carrying both a phone AND a pager on the
> street).

The key word in your comment is "cheap". Until personal phones have
truly inexpensive service (as opposed to the current rip-off cellular
pricing schemes), it probably would not be uncommon to see people with
both a pager and pocket phone. I sometimes feel like the consumate
dweeb with my MicroTac on one side and my Cue pager on the other. I am
on twenty-four hour call, but at the price of cellular service, I'll
decide who I talk to and when. A very small handful of people know the
cell phone number; all others use the pager and then I make the
judgement concerning the importance of the call.

And once again, as I am about to leave for SoCal, I contemplate the
$0.70/min charged (whether there is an answer or not) by PacTel for
the privelege of staying in touch.

> Once your reachable anywhere anytime by phone whats the
> point of the pager?  (Now if we could just get caller-id on these
> small/cheap phones... :-))

Well, you said it. The pager provides a poor man's convoluted form of
Caller-ID. Many people, regardless of cost, may not enjoy or be able
to tolerate being 100% accessable 100% of the time. A pager provides a
buffer to that availability. I know many people who carry both. I
would, even if my cellular service was free.


        John Higdon         |   P. O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 723 1395
    john@bovine.ati.com     | San Jose, CA 95150 |       M o o !