Group Presentation -

Paging Services in Hong Kong
by Aileen Cheng
Mandy Cheung
Ngai Chi-ho

Introduction

In 1990's, many people in Hong Kong use pagers as a medium for transferring messages. But how much do you know about the paging service in Hong Kong? What should be the proper way of using it? This report would give you more information on the paging service.

We divide our report into three parts. Firstly, we would talk about the history of the paging service and what the newly developed technology is. Then, we would proceed to talk about the proper way of using the paging service. Lastly, we would introduce the paging's complement - the cordless telephone.

History of Pager

Paging was born in 1920's. In 1921, paging was first used as the mobile system in the United States Police Station. Later on, the business units start selling pagers. In the early development, the pager's size was very large and was bulky to carry. However, as technology improves, in 1970's, a newly invented pager was developed, which was still very large. At this stage, the pager system was still controlled by a few people. When the operator received the message, they recorded it down and then announced it to all the pager owners at certain time intervals. So the owners had to listen to the announcement on time. It was, of course, not convenient. Worse still, it allowed no privacy between owners and the callers and wasting the owners' valuable time.

As technology developed, in 1980's, a modern generation pager was invented. It was certainly much more convenient than before. Not only do we had number pager at that time, but also Chinese and English pager provided. More fashionable pager models are developed in 1990's.

According to the information given by the Hong Kong Telecom, there are over 150 million pager owners in Hong Kong and this figure would be further increase in the near future.

The New Technology Developed - Email-to-Paging

As the name implies, we make use of the email networking services to further enhance the efficiency of pager. The mechanism behind this is: once you receive an email, your pager would notify you. Then you could read the message in the pager as if you are called by phone. It is convenient to the caller as he or she now no longer needs to queue up in the telephone booth. Moreover, it is a direct transfer of message and thus is accurate.

Limitations of Paging Technology

The primary purpose of paging is to notify the pager owner that something happens. It's simple and fast, and is enough in the past. But when the messages we need to send become more and more complicated now, the unidirectional nature of paging technology becomes a serious limitation, as we cannot reply to the caller without using other communication aids. Also, there is no way for the caller to know whether the messages have really reached the pager owner successfully.

Having such limitations in paging technology, which are in-born and cannot be changed, we can, however, use the paging service more properly, to make it more effective and efficient. It is the manner of using paging service.

Manner for a Caller

Clarify Your Identity

Being a responsible caller, you should be sure that the subscriber knows where the message comes from. If you just leave, e.g. "Mr Lee: 2345 6789", the subscriber can never know it is you who send the message, unless he have already known who owns the telephone number. So, if you are Mr Chan, Miss Wong, etc. and want to leave a telephone number which he doesn't know, leave your full name, or at least your English name, instead of letting him guess who you are.

Don't Confuse Your Paging Operator

Unless you know your subscriber is using a Chinese/English pager, don't leave a message which cannot even be understood by the paging operator, because you speaks Chinese, but the station stores your message in English, which will be further distorted if the paging operator doesn't understand what you're talking about. I prefer hearing "University Library" to "U-L-I-E" when I call back to the station.

Adapt the New Paging Numbers As Soon As Possible

You should have known that all the existing 7-digit and 9-digit paging numbers have to be changed to uniform 8-digit numbers with a prefix "7". The change has taken place for more than two months. By the next month, if you still dial the old numbers, you will receive a recorded announcement advising you to use the new number. So, to avoid listening to the annoying message and wasting your time, use the new numbers now! For the 7-digit old numbers, just precedes it with a "7" and you get the new ones. For the 9-digit ones, you can refer to the page Numbering Change for Paging Services in Hong Kong.

Manner for a Subscriber (Pager Owner)

Be User Friendly

I have had such an experience. I was going to attend a meeting, and when I found that I'd be late, I'd like to page the chairman that I'd be late for about 5 minutes. I tried to page him, and a recorded voice told me to wait for one minute, to see whether the subscriber could directly talk to me. One minute passed without answering from the chairman. Suddenly the recorded voice told me to key in my name represented in numbers on my HK ID card! But why should I memorize my name code? Since time was limited, and I was already late, I could only hang up the phone and continue my way to meeting.

I just want to say that, this kind of paging service gives the subscriber great convenience, but leaving his callers frustrated and even annoyed, so it is not a "user friendly interface". The subscriber is a user of course, but so are his callers.

Be Considerate

You may think that this issue has only little relationship with effectiveness and efficiency, but that's why I'd like to talk about it.

A lecturer in CS&E department hates pager beeping in the class very much. He had already announced since term started that, if anyone let the pager beep in his class, the lecturer would simply go away and cancel the lesson. Since then he has already cancelled two lessons angrily.

Letting one's pager beep in public place does not only disturb others, it also keeps the pager owner from knowing he gets a message at the first moment. In the past when the population of pager users was not large, one could easily know that he gets a message just by realizing the beep. But now, a beep just means that there exists someone in the area gets a message. No one knows who gets it until the source of the beep is identified.

Switching the pager to vibrating mode can, on the other hand, avoid such a situation. No one else except yourself know that a message is received. Other pager users will no longer be disturbed, and you are notified at the first moment. So I strongly advise:

If you stick your pager on your belt, switch it to vibrating mode. If you put it in your bag, stick it on your belt instead. It benefits you.

There is also a technical approach to deal with the limitations of paging service. It is the cordless telephone.

Introduction of CT2

When used with a pager, CT2 roughly have the same functions as a mobile phone, while the price (CT2 and pager combined) is just 20 - 30% of a mobile phone! CT2 is a fast communicating device, which can phone out like a mobile phone, but with the shortcoming that receiving messages is impossible. The product concept is that it is just a "Cordless Telephone". Owing to the use of radio-linkage, walking around while talking is impractical with CT2.

Comparison of the Three CT2 Companies

There are three major companies competing for the CT2 market now - Tien Dey Seen of Hutchison, Telepoint of Chevalier and Telelink of Pacific. See the following table:


Hutchison Paging Chevalier First Pacific Telelink
Service Brand Name Tien Dey Seen Telepoint Telelink
Handsets Suppliers Motorola (US) Shaye (UK) Shaye (UK)
Connection Time (in seconds) 13.13 18.31 22.75
Clearness (5 for highest) 4.32 2.95 3.44
Weight (in gram) 152 142 142
Base Stations about 4800 about 3000 about 2500
Special Functions:
a) memory 30 12 12
b) continuous talking time (hours) 6 13 13
c) light * * *
d) signal display (strong or weak)
* *

It can be concluded that Hutchison enjoy a greater variety and higher quality of CT2 handsets. Having the steady supplier Motorola, there are three kinds of Tien Dey Seen products. One is the ordinary CT2 handsets. The other is the Built-in Tien Dey Seen (Tien Dey Seen pager plus package). It has the pager built into the CT2 handsets. The third one is the Tien Dey Seen Personal Base. It is the CT2 handsets together with an in-house receiving equipment. It is just like the CT1. Thus it can be used like a telephone inside the house. Its counterparts do not have this advantage.

However, nothing is perfect. Tien Dey Seen is the heaviest handset among the three brands. Its continuous talking time is almost half less than the others. Without the signal display, the customer cannot find a right position to make a phone call so as to enhance the clearness.

Under Keen Competition, the Opportunities for CT2

Even though there is a keen competitions among CT2 and mobile phones, the market for CT2 is still new. There are 850,000 paging users with a total of 15 paging companies, about 400,000 of them are Hutchison paging users. There is an increasing rate of growth in the market. Indeed, Tien Dey Seen has a competitive advantage. The Tien Dey Seen Telepoint network is Hong Kong largest CT2 network, holding about 50% of CT2 market share.

Future Prospects of CT2

All three companies are optimistic about CT2's future with continuous improving quality of handsets & providing better services. However, the industry is not without threat as stated above. With the advance of technology, mobile phones may lower in cost. This will pose a great threat to CT2 as mobile phones are perceived as superior but unaffordable.

Another threat is the introduction of CT3. Though not receiving much attention, in 1991, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson was already pressing ahead with the cordless generation III. It is similar to CT2 but being able to receive incoming calls.

All in all, there is still one point that CT2's market worth noticing. That is, the still unsaturated market for CT2 as mentioned about. And we hope that there will be new innovation and development in the near future.

Source of Photos: Ming Pao Daily News.