Conference 7.286::digital

    Well, I have some experience and from using my pager for two years now,
    I don't have any complaints.
    
    I got mine from Page New England.  It's pretty simple.  I requested
    voicemail service on paging service.  When I get a voicemail, I get
    beeped.  Always.  Never any problem and never have to call voicemail to
    see if there are messages and my customers can get me at anytime.  The
    call is also a toll-free number for them.  It's very slick and
    customers like it a lot.  You determine the urgency of returning the
    call.  Listen to the message and respond accordingly. 
    
    FWIW
    Jane

    SkyTel two way paging gets around the reliability problem since the
    system keeps sending the page until your pager confirms reciept but
    it's probably expensive and may not be available yet in your area.

    Craig,
    
    I have been working with sky-Tell for about 5 years now.  Their service
    tends to go back and forth, between good to terrible.  It got much
    worse when we centralized our paging procurement, leaving us without a
    local contact.  They are just not responsive now.
    
    specifically, on your problem, they do have pagers with different
    frequencies and with lower baud rates, which do tend to be more
    reliable.  I made them switch all of ours out to the low baud rate type
    to improve my service and keep messages clean.  a few months ago they
    unilaterally called each person and told them a new pager was coming
    and to return the old one when they activated it.  They "upgraded them
    to the higher baud rate again, in order to save on their cost of paging
    at slower baud rates, or so I am told. 
    
    My suggestion, do not use them if you can not have a local resource to
    hold accountable.
    
    
    Joef

    The frequency of the pager is very important in determining it's range
    and reliability.  The lower frequency pagers (152 mhz) tend to have a
    longer range due to the wavelength.  The lower wavelength travels over
    obstructions and mountains more consistantly. The higher frequency 
    (900 mhz up) tend to penetrate buildings better, but have a 
    shorter range due to the straighter traveling high wavelength.  Another
    factor which is important is the strength and location of the pager
    company's transmitters.  Ask them about their locations if they are
    not satellite repeaters.
    
    -Lee 

    Hello,
    
    	Not to get to far off of the subject but what types of paging
    software are people using? I currently use DECalert which is now
    TARGET->>Alert for automated paging from DECscheduler and DCL
    com files or UNIX scripts, using the RUDEM software. This stuff
    was owned by Digital and is about 7-8 years old. TARGET now owns
    it and hasn't updated it in a couple of years. Any neat automated
    software beeping tools available, that works on OpenVMS, Unix,
    WindowsNT?
    	I'm currently using Mobilemedia/Metromedia for pagers. This is
    in HLO Hudson Ma. Digital Semiconductor.
    
    Ron

    IHMO, SkyTel pretty much sux. I have had 3 of their nation-wide pagers
    in the last 6 months. None have worked very well. One was brand
    spanking new and died less than 24 hours after I received it. All of
    them have suffered from "Out of range" messages (In such "remote" areas
    as Mid-town Manhattan!), pages that never come through, pages that are
    cutoff or garbled, etc.
    
    I've tried to get our internal "pager group" involved, but it seems
    that no one ever answers the phone there. I finally gave up on the
    phone tag game (I'd leave them voice mail, then they'd leave me voice
    mail, ad infinitum). :-( 
    
    I (and I'm sure MANY other Digits) rely heavily on my pager. I travel
    to customer sites all over the country, at a moments notice. The pager
    is usually the ONLY way to contact me, unless you want to leave a
    message at a hotel (and many nights I don't get back to my room before
    midnight of later).
    
    The few dollars that we save by using a cheaper pager service is
    probably far outweighed by lost business when customers can't contact
    us. But the latter numbers don't show up as clearly in some budget
    somewhere. :-(
    
    Harry
    

    I just checked my SkyTel, and its frequency is 931.4375 MHz.  The pager
    itself is made by Motorola.
    
    Thanks for all the replies.  

    I have a SkyTel pager, acquired last June.  Up till then I had a plain
    old workhorse Motorola Bravo through AirTouch Paging (nee PacTel).  I
    like my SkyTel pager, also a Motorola.  I did experience a system
    outage over July 4 Weekend, a traditionally busy time for me, and that
    was a hassle.  Other than that, I have received one garbled page in 7
    months, and one "out of range" message while in an airplane.
    
    I find that the 800# is really nice for me, since I deal with internal
    and external customers nationwide.  I know that you can get 800#
    service from other paging companies, but SkyTel and SkyPage are pretty
    well known, so it makes communicating my pager number faster, too.
    
    Just my opinion, YMMV (or does vary, rather!).
    
    M.
    

    I just got a Skytel with Skyword, so far about 20% of the time
    I miss messages, when I inquiry at the customer service desk, they
    tell me the messages, so it seems to be in the transmission.
    
    When I push the issue, they ask me to talk to the supervisor.
    High Tech......

    
    Complain to MCI..
    
    

    re: .5
    
    There is a company called Notification Technologies in (you guessed it)
    Colorado Springs.  They have a *better* way of paging and monitoring
    systems than what you can do with TARGET->>Alert, nee DECalert.  They
    will support just about any O/S and pager type/company, including text.
    
    I replaced the former product with their product last year.
    
    For info, call 719-535-2855
    
    regards,
    
    Bill Thomas