Pagers in India
Pagers reached India far later than the United States of America or the United Kingdom, but quickly grew in popularity - and then, almost as quickly, declined from popular use. For years many people spoke of the end of pagers in India. Yet this promised end has not arrived, as some Indian businesses continue to find uses for this ingenious device.
The boom
In 1995 pagers were launched in India, with resoundingly positive reception by many sectors of Indian business and public service. Service technicians, hospital staff and many others embraced pagers, seeing them as a way to gain much needed mobility in communications. They were lightly carried on the owner's belt or tucked in a pocket. Important messages could easily be sent: notifications to technical staff while they were at a customer's house, alerting a doctor that a patient had gone into critical condition, contacting someone to re-schedule a meeting, and so on. Compared to early mobile phones they were smaller, had longer battery life and - importantly in a country where few businesses, let alone people, could be described as wealthy - pagers were considerably cheaper. The use of pagers in India peaked in 1998, when the subscriber base reached nearly 2 million.
The decline
By 2002, that number had dropped to less than 500,000. The companies selling and supporting pagers struggled to maintain their business. While upgrading to two-way pagers would almost certainly have helped, they were unable to make the necessary improvements to their infrastructure. The companies tried another tactic to revitalise their popularity - offering paging services in some of India's many regional languages - but this failed to make a critical difference. The Indian Paging Systems Association could do nothing to help, as pagers declined and the mobile phone - rapidly becoming multi-functional and, after a significant cut in tariffs, affordable - boomed. By 2004, pagers were being handed out for free - and even then, demand was low. Almost everyone predicted that the pager would soon be completely gone from India.
The staying power
Yet, as in the United States of America or the United Kingdom, pagers have demonstrated their staying power in India. The boom days are no more, but many people are discovering that this ingenious little device has plenty of life in it yet. Hospital staff still use them, for the same reasons as in other countries: reliability, ease-of-use, and complete lack of interference with medical equipment. Technicians use them too.
Then there are restaurants, a key component of India's rapidly growing hospitality sector. As in other countries, some Indian restaurants give pagers to their customers, inviting them to take a seat until their pager lights up or beeps, or both, alerting them that their food is ready to collect. Some developers want to take this further. One example was at a recent hospitality fair where a Delhi-based company showed off their new version of a paging system. They have a keypad and screen, allowing customers to type messages to restaurant or hotel staff, placing orders, letting staff know that a drink or dish has not arrived with the rest, and so on. That established companies are continuing to work with pagers proves that rumours of the device's demise in India are well off the mark.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Atkinson
The boom
In 1995 pagers were launched in India, with resoundingly positive reception by many sectors of Indian business and public service. Service technicians, hospital staff and many others embraced pagers, seeing them as a way to gain much needed mobility in communications. They were lightly carried on the owner's belt or tucked in a pocket. Important messages could easily be sent: notifications to technical staff while they were at a customer's house, alerting a doctor that a patient had gone into critical condition, contacting someone to re-schedule a meeting, and so on. Compared to early mobile phones they were smaller, had longer battery life and - importantly in a country where few businesses, let alone people, could be described as wealthy - pagers were considerably cheaper. The use of pagers in India peaked in 1998, when the subscriber base reached nearly 2 million.
The decline
By 2002, that number had dropped to less than 500,000. The companies selling and supporting pagers struggled to maintain their business. While upgrading to two-way pagers would almost certainly have helped, they were unable to make the necessary improvements to their infrastructure. The companies tried another tactic to revitalise their popularity - offering paging services in some of India's many regional languages - but this failed to make a critical difference. The Indian Paging Systems Association could do nothing to help, as pagers declined and the mobile phone - rapidly becoming multi-functional and, after a significant cut in tariffs, affordable - boomed. By 2004, pagers were being handed out for free - and even then, demand was low. Almost everyone predicted that the pager would soon be completely gone from India.
The staying power
Yet, as in the United States of America or the United Kingdom, pagers have demonstrated their staying power in India. The boom days are no more, but many people are discovering that this ingenious little device has plenty of life in it yet. Hospital staff still use them, for the same reasons as in other countries: reliability, ease-of-use, and complete lack of interference with medical equipment. Technicians use them too.
Then there are restaurants, a key component of India's rapidly growing hospitality sector. As in other countries, some Indian restaurants give pagers to their customers, inviting them to take a seat until their pager lights up or beeps, or both, alerting them that their food is ready to collect. Some developers want to take this further. One example was at a recent hospitality fair where a Delhi-based company showed off their new version of a paging system. They have a keypad and screen, allowing customers to type messages to restaurant or hotel staff, placing orders, letting staff know that a drink or dish has not arrived with the rest, and so on. That established companies are continuing to work with pagers proves that rumours of the device's demise in India are well off the mark.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Atkinson
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