Japan's pagers beep one final time, consigned to tech history

The Japanese pagers that made a debut about 50 years ago will see an end to their services on October 1. Once upon a time, the pagers were a must-have tool for communication by a major population before cell phones took over. The Tokyo Telemessage is the company that still provided pager services in Japan. The company, however, decided to shut down the radio signals needed behind the services of Pager on September 30 midnight. The company had just 1500 or fewer subscribers left, many of them being health workers. The reason why pagers were preferred in the medical world was being the effects electromagnetic waves may have on medical instruments. 

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Last private pager subscriber 

As reported by foreign media, the last private subscriber of the pager is Japan is a man named Ken Fujikura. The reason behind him keeping his pager was his 80-year-old mother who prefered contacting him with the help of a pager. He said while speaking to foreign media that his mother knows the pager number so whenever the pager beeped, he knew it was his mother. He also said that he was not sure about the urgency in case of a mobile phone.

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Rise and Fall of pager

A pager was a wireless communication device that received and displayed alphanumeric or voice messages. The sales of pokeberu (pocket balls) began in the country in the year 1968. They were really famous in the 1980s by a lot of people. By the year 1996, the pager users were over 10 million. Towards the end of the 20th century, the pagers reportedly became quite popular among female high school students who found out various signals and ways to communicate through pagers. In the last two decades with the emergence of mobile phones, the pager industry nearly vanished across the world. Now with the smartphones in the market, people prefer calling, texting, sending pictures, video calling than using the options pager had to offer. The shutting down of pager signals also brings an end to an era.

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(With inputs from agencies)