Pagers, the early compact mobile communication devices, were thrust into the spotlight on September 17, 2024, when hundreds of these devices used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded simultaneously. This unprecedented attack, which Hezbollah attributed to Israeli interference, underscores the pager’s continued relevance despite the dominance of smartphones.
Pagers, small devices that receive messages and sound alerts, were once widely used, peaking at 61 million units in circulation worldwide in 1994. They operate on their own frequencies, which can bypass mobile networks, making them a reliable communication tool in various fields.
Despite smartphones largely replacing pagers in the consumer market, pagers remain in use in specific sectors such as hospitals. A 2017 study in the *Journal of Hospital Medicine* found that nearly 80% of hospital doctors in the U.S. used pagers for patient-related communications due to their reliability.
Pagers were first patented in the U.S. in 1949 by Alfred Gross and became more widely known with Motorola’s Pageboy 1 in 1964, which introduced audible alerts before advancing to written messages in the 1980s. Despite technological advancements, pagers continue to be valued for their ability to function reliably when other communication networks fail.
