Disruptive Technologies Part 2

Before cellphones had SMS there was the pager. It is a simple communication device usually clipped to a belt. The way it functions is that you call a Paging company and then they will send the message to the pager. When the message arrives it would either beep or vibrate just like the cellphone.

The pager was the object of constant butt of jokes back in the days. Sometimes you send a message to someone and it would arrive misspelled or in a bad grammar. And sometimes the operators sends the wrong message to the wrong person. There is this joke about a messenger sending a congratulatory message to a person who's relative have just died. And meanwhile, also sending a condolence message to a couple who have just been married. The paging companies were just like that.

One paging company I remember is Pocketbell. And then back in those days it was a standard for folks to have both a cellphone and a pager. But when cellphone companies began to offer SMS, the paging industry disappeared.

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