Pagers, the forgotten ancestors of communications, are far from gone.
Although we thought they were classified alongside fax machines and telephone booths, they still proudly buzz in the pockets of 130,000 users in France, thanks to e*Message, which has become a monopoly thanks to the very low productivity of 435 antennas . and a coverage of 98% of the population. Firefighters, police, employees at Seveso sites or even Engie and theme parks swear by the alarms when everything else collapses. We could say that these little boxes play the role of “sleeping” communications: they are essential in emergencies, despite their appearance that resembles a relic of the 90s!
More recently, pagers have made a dramatic reappearance in Lebanon, where thousands of booby-trapped models exploded simultaneously during a military operation attributed to Israel. In France, these boxes revolutionized restricted professions in the late 1980s, for example. *Message bought the network dedicated to France Télécom, and the company currently has a license valid until the end of 2025. According to Les Echos, a renewal file has been submitted to Arcep for the next ten years.
Source: Le Eco (hard copy)
This article was reprinted on Univers FreeBox.
