Paging Seen as Poised for Breakthrough for Use in EAS
Paging leader USA Mobility sees paging, which received several mentions in the Independent Panel on Hurricane Katrina, as poised for a breakthrough as an aid in emergency communications, as the FCC contemplates an EAS order later this year. USA Mobility sees emergency use as a possible growth engine for what has been a shrinking market. “Paging is excellent for emergency alerting,” USA Mobility Gen. Counsel Scott Tollefsen said in an interview. “It’s an excellent technology for backup communications because it is so inexpensive and so easy to use.”
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USA Mobility controls about 60% of the U.S. market, with almost 5 million customers. The Alexandria, Va.-based firm has some 15,000 towers nationwide and covers about 90% of the U.S. population.
Tollefsen said advantages of paging include its relative independence from the PSTN, the high power levels paging companies are allowed to use under FCC rules and its use of satellite for backhaul. Pagers also operate on batteries, so they don’t have the same power recharge problems that have been a problem for cellphones in previous emergencies. Perhaps most importantly, paging companies can broadcast hundreds of thousands of emergency messages at one time -- a capacity lacking in general for SMS offered by wireless carriers, which was designed as a point-to-point service.
Paging chips could be added to cellphones or PDAs, Tollefsen said. While discussions have taken place with various carriers, USA Mobility isn’t disclosing details. “Device manufacturers would be happy to do it,” he said. “The issue is getting the broadband carriers to determine that they want to add it… Certainly these discussions have been held in the past, but now, with a heightened interest in emergency communications it’s appropriate to continue the discussions.”
Paging got a shot in the arm when the FCC’s Katrina panel released its report in June. “Paging systems seemed more reliable in some instances than voice/cellular systems because paging systems utilize satellite networks, rather than terrestrial systems, for backbone infrastructure,” the report said. “Paging technology is also inherently redundant, which means that messages may still be relayed if a single transmitter or group of transmitters in a network fails. Paging signals penetrate buildings very well, thus providing an added level of reliability. Additionally, pagers benefited from having a long battery life and thus remained operating longer during the power outages.”
The panel recommended the FCC “educate the public safety community about the availability and capabilities of non-traditional technologies that might provide effective back-up solutions for existing public safety communications systems” including paging.