If there’s one thing we should have recently learned in the wake of 911, Hurricane Katrina, and Haiti, it’s that despite all the technology available to us, there’s still a problem with effective communication during disasters. Experts scratch their heads as emergency workers run around trying to find a way to message each other and get their jobs done effectively, while the public collectively shakes their heads at the ensuing chaos. It is apparent to many that the failures of cell phones, the Internet, and even mobile radios that occurred during Katrina have yet to be addressed. Discussions of increasing networks, adding cell phone towers, and making mobile phones compatible have all been thrown into the mix of proposed solutions, but the reality is that they all come with enormous complications, the same intractable problems and labels of High prices. And, in this shaky economy, no one has found a way that makes any economic sense to instigate those solutions, the reality is that they’re just not practical.
What is realistic is to return to a proven form of communication that is reliable, affordable, and has been proven over time to work in a variety of situations, including natural disasters. That communication system are pagers. When many people hear the word pager, they think of the old-fashioned “pager,” which is anything but sleek and sexy compared to a smartphone that has an app for everything except communication during natural disasters. However, if the old pager is what comes to mind in the verbal signal “pager”, then clearly a pager shop must be on the list of destinations and soon.
Today’s pagers are sophisticated and capable of much more than “in the past,” and include one-way pagers, two-way pagers, and pagers that have Internet and email capabilities. However, the brilliance of a pager is found in the way a pager receives its signals and sends messages. For cell phones to work, they rely on networks that assign a single channel on a single transmitter to a mobile connection with a much smaller range and then rely on the network to “pass” the call to another tower, if a channel is available. and not overloaded. Pagers, on the other hand, operate from a simulcast network that simultaneously delivers a radio signal from multiple transmitters that provide a wider coverage area and better building penetration than other technologies. A locator tower can cover an area about sixty miles wide compared to a cell tower that can cover a maximum of ten miles. So what happens in the event of a hurricane, tornado or flood when these towers are damaged or collapse? In the case of a public address tower, an emergency tower can be immediately erected and a gas generator run. Installation of an emergency locator tower can be done in the most remote locations and can literally be done in the back of a pickup truck if the situation calls for it. This is not the case with a cell phone tower, in fact replacing a tower and getting a signal for a working cell phone is complicated and requires a lot more to work and is not likely to happen in an emergency situation, and then there is the matter of receiving a signal from that temporary tower. The problem of no signal is eliminated with the use of pagers.
Paging systems can also easily designate priorities and automatically block or limit non-critical users during periods of time when it is imperative that emergency users have access. Pagers were designed to send mass messages to large groups of people and have been used in this role for years. In the case of natural disasters, first responders and other emergency personnel need information to be disseminated in this way without fail. This problem became widespread during Hurricane Katrina and there was no way to counteract the crisis. If pagers had been used, information could have been disseminated and sent to the masses without problems instead of messages being dropped from planes in bottles as happened in Katrina.
The final feature of a pager that demonstrates the device’s advantages over cell phones is reliability. Pagers do not work with a battery that needs to be charged with electricity. Pagers are powered by standard batteries and the battery life, and thus the life of the pager, is from several months to a year. With the simple replacement of a battery, the pager works again. Try to recharge a cell phone in a natural disaster when the power is out. Clearly, a pager is the more reliable option when comparing the two.
It’s time to ask the hard questions with the easy answers and ask ourselves why we are ignoring what is in front of us and available. Why aren’t we using the only communication tool that is reliable, inexpensive, reliable and safe to save lives in these emergency situations? Why aren’t pagers in the hands of every first responder on the job? Sometimes the newest with the most apps and features just isn’t what the job requires. Sometimes the practical and proven is what we should be using, that is, if we want to avoid the calamity that became known as Katrina. Our first responders and our public deserve to have this simple solution. No amount of cell phone features or ringtones will make up for the lack of communication this country has suffered during the most recent natural disasters. It’s time to put life-saving tools back in the hands and pockets of our first responders. Time to get back to pagers.