The birth of pager

Pagers are also called BP machines, pagers, and BB machines, which are called pagers for short. Pager, pager

1983, Shanghai opened the first paging station in China, and BP machine entered China.

The instant communication of BP machine has brought people into an era without time and space distance, and it is everywhere all the time, which greatly speeds up people's life and work efficiency, but it also makes people have nowhere to hide. People love and hate it, but they can't live without it.

User receiver in wireless paging system. It usually consists of superheterodyne receiver, decoder, control part and display part. After receiving the signal, the pager will emit sound or vibration and display relevant information. Pager for short.

The mobile phone used to be a communication tool, and it looks very small. At the end of last century, they were widely circulated in China, Asia and even the whole world.

People who use pagers can communicate and contact conveniently and quickly, so BP machines are favored. The wireless paging system is actually a one-way wireless selective calling system without voice, which includes a base station, several peripheral base stations, data circuits, paging terminals and pagers. The paging terminal centrally processes the called number and calling information sent by the telephone network, and realizes the functions of repeated calling, multi-station inquiry, statistics and billing. And then coded and converted into digital signals with a certain code type and format, transmitted to base stations and peripheral stations through data circuits, and simultaneously transmitted by these base station transmitters. The called pager will display information after receiving the signal transmitted by the base station.

Pager is a radio receiver worn by users. There are two ways of BP machine: manual tandem and automatic tandem, and the corresponding paging stations are called manual paging stations and automatic paging stations. Manual paging stations need manual operation to encode these messages and send signals through the transmitter. The automatic paging station automatically finds out the phone number of the pager according to the line number of the incoming call and sends it out at the same time, so that the called party can know which phone is calling. Pagers we often use are divided into two categories: digital pagers and Chinese pagers. Digital pagers are small, cheap and practical. Chinese pager directly displays Chinese characters, and the information is easy to identify.

Edit the usage of this paragraph.

If you are looking for someone, but you are not at home.

Call the paging station,

Say, call me back or something.

A will call you back with a public phone or something when she sees it.

Edit this historical introduction.

When pagers first appeared, anyone with pagers was envious. At that time, people called it "pager", BB machine and BP machine. Owning a pager became a great wish of many people at that time. In the late 1980s, pagers began to appear in China. With the maturity of science and technology and the increase of social demand, paging stations have sprung up all over our province since 1990. The prosperity of paging market makes the competition between paging stations increasingly fierce. The means is the price war of service fees. At that time, some paging stations had higher service, and the internet access fee was 100 yuan, the digital machine was one year 180 yuan (monthly 15 yuan), and the Chinese character machine was one year 600 yuan (monthly 50 yuan). In order to compete with users, the network access fee of paging stations was reduced from the initial 100 yuan to 30 yuan, 50 yuan, and the service fee was also reduced, until the network was finally free. In order to get more users, some paging stations have also increased the content of sending weather forecasts, stock information, news and so on. , a content monthly in 2 yuan. Fierce competition benefits the people, and finally all information is sent free of charge.

1993, 1994, mobile phones began to appear slowly. But at that time, it was very common for people to have a single-function trunking phone, which was often called a "big brick". Only the big boss can afford it for 20 thousand to 30 thousand yuan. Holding it in your hand is like a status symbol, full of arrogance, because only a few people really could afford it at that time.

From the second half of 1995, the paging service gradually fell under the strong offensive of mobile phones, and the number of paging users began to stop increasing. 1996 began to decline, the number of users decreased, and the number of paging stations also dropped sharply. Up to now, there are only four paging stations in the province: Unicom 126, Tietong 95828, Landun 959 10 and Wansheng 95900. The number of users has also dropped from 2.8 million in the province in that year to the current shortage of 1 10,000. When the reporter interviewed a few days ago, some paging stations no longer handle network access services, only serving former users.

Edit this evolution roadmap.

Analog BP machine → digital BP machine, Chinese character BP machine → mobile phone, MSN and other instant messaging tools.

1983, Shanghai users only use analog signal BP machine. Users can only accept call signals, and they have to call the paging station to find the callback number. The digital paging station opened in Guangzhou the following year solved this problem. The early BP machines were all imported products, and the brands were Motorola and Panasonic. Later, Inspur's domestic enterprises cooperated with Motorola to develop a Chinese character BP machine, so that users can know the content of the call without looking for a phone all over the street.

With the price falling again and again, by the end of 1990s, BP machine had become a very popular product. However, as the first generation of instant messaging tools, BP machine is more like a transitional role. With the popularity of mobile phones, BP machines have gradually withdrawn from the market. However, now we can't live without instant messaging tools, and mobile phones, MSN or QQ have become the necessities of many people's lives.

Pioneer monument

Motorola, one of the earliest brand owners of BP machine, has maintained a leading position in the field of the most mainstream instant messaging tool-2G mobile phone with the help of brand recognition established by BP machine and analog mobile phone.

Race all beings.

China's first paging signal was sent from a bathroom in Shanghai Overseas Chinese Store. At first, there was only one paging station. At that time, it provided paging service for the upcoming Fifth National Games in Shanghai, with only over 30 users.

Spread Impressionism "Call me if you need anything!"

BP machine can only receive radio signals, but not send signals, so it is a one-way mobile communication tool.

Ordinary digital pagers are small in appearance, smaller than a pack of cigarettes, and can be conveniently put in your pocket or pinned to your waist. Once it receives the paging signal, it will make a few slight "B-, B-" sounds to remind people to pay attention. In order not to disturb others, you can also turn off the sound switch The pager just sends out a mechanical vibration, just like the slight vibration of the massager, which only the carrier can feel. After the pager receives the signal, some Arabic numerals and English characters will be displayed on the LCD screen, representing telephone numbers and short words respectively. It is inconvenient for China people to display English characters, so there is a Chinese character display BP machine. This kind of BP machine can not only display the telephone number, but also transmit simple information. Some professional stations can also release some professional information, such as the price of grain and the price of vegetable seeds on the day when the agricultural paging desk is released. In summer, people can also know the price of watermelon through BP machine, which has many functions and is very popular.

At present, there are all kinds of BP machines, there are more than a dozen. Some are like pocket diaries, small and exquisite; Some are like a card, very light; Some are like ballpoint pens, which can be inserted in coat pockets; Some people even make corsage and necklace to hang on their chests. Others are integrated with watches and held in their hands. At ordinary times and time, when someone calls, it becomes a BP machine.

The girl dialed the number of the paging station through wired telephone. After the call was connected, she told the operator the BP number she wanted to page, her name and phone number, and then hung up and waited. The paging station operator immediately inputs the above information into the computer, and the transmitter automatically transmits the call information into the air under the control of the computer.

You may ask, since the radio waves emitted by paging stations can cover a certain area, why can the BP machine in this area only receive the call for itself, but not the signal to page others?

It turns out that each BP machine has its own number, which is stored in the computer of the paging station. The message sent by the paging station has this number, and only the corresponding BP machine can be started, which has no influence on other BP machines. Just like a postman, delivering letters according to the user's house number can't be wrong.

When the girl's friend hears the sound of "B-, B-", she turns on the display switch, and the number requesting to call back appears on the screen, so her friend can find a phone nearby to talk to the girl.

The numbers of public paging stations in China are 126 and 127, and the numbers of some professional paging stations are 7 digits or 6 digits. 126 and 127 are public stations, but they are used in different ways. 126 is answered by the operator, which is a manual paging station, and 127 is controlled by a computer, which is called an automatic paging station. The girl above uses a manual paging station. If you want to page through 127, you will only hear a pre-recorded prompt, such as "Please continue dialing". Then you have to send the number of the call through the buttons of your mobile phone. After receiving these signals, the computer of the paging station checks these signals and sends out a page on the wireless channel.

Some paging devices are also connected to the telephone at home. If no one answers the phone after a certain period of time, the call will be automatically transferred to the paging station.

Pagers are small in size, light in weight, cheap in price and easy to use, which makes them widely used in various industries.

Doctors can carry a BP machine with them when they make house calls. If there is an emergency patient in the operating room, the doctor needs to make a follow-up visit immediately, and can call with a BP machine. Such as assistants, nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. When necessary, the special paging function of the paging station-group paging, will "give an order" to call all the paged people without individual notice.

Commanders and engineers in construction sites often work on the spot. With a pager, wherever you go, if there is something urgent, you can find it immediately through the paging station.

In big hotels, people can look for waiters or hotel foreman through the internal paging desk. Managers of shops and companies can find buyers who work outside the home through paging desks.

Pagers can also perform roaming service, similar to roaming in mobile phones. When you are on a business trip, don't worry that others can't find you, because people can call you through the local paging station.

Now more and more people have BP machines, and the sound of BP machines can be heard in every corner of the city. People proudly patted the "electric cricket" around their waist and said, "It's really convenient to have it!"

In a pasture in southwestern Japan, even cows were lucky enough to take a BP machine. In order to manage the cattle conveniently, the rancher came up with a strange way to use the pager. When grazing, each cow hangs a BP machine around its neck. As soon as the BP machine calls, the cows will "consciously" return to the cowshed from the pasture.

Edit this popular classic: pager

With the development of science and technology, pagers, once all the rage, have gradually moved away from our lives and entered the era of "hiding from calling".

The wireless paging system is a one-way mobile communication mode, and the pager is actually a signal receiver, which is used to receive the paging signal sent by the paging station. 1948, Bell Laboratories developed the world's first pager, named Bell Boy. After entering the 1970s, the use of new technology laid the foundation for the large-scale promotion of pagers. Today, the practical significance is getting weaker and weaker, and the collection of pagers should still attract our attention.

The key to the collection value of pagers lies in three factors: first, pagers are an important stage in the history of modern communication development; Secondly, in the development of China, pagers have formed various brands and models of product systems. Collecting them is both interesting and difficult. Thirdly, compared with fashion collections such as clocks and mobile phones, pagers are cheaper and cheaper to collect, especially today when pagers are gradually being eliminated. Many second-hand pagers can be bought for only a few yuan to a dozen yuan, which is suitable for public collection.

At present, there are three main types of pager collections: one is the series collection of Motorola brand. In the paging industry, Motorola is undoubtedly the leader. At first, the share of Motorola pagers in the domestic market was as high as 70%. During the period from 1993 to 1998, in order to meet the market demand, Motorola developed a large number of new styles and varieties of pagers, forming many series, such as Motorola enterprising, Motorola fashion and Motorola pocket. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a meaningful and interesting thing if it can be collected in series.

The second is the collection of varieties with special significance. For example, in May 1993, Bird Company successfully developed the first Chinese pager with independent intellectual property rights in China; 1May 1995, they independently developed the first stock information machine in China; 1May 1997, the first high-speed Chinese character machine was born in China; In just one year, Bird produced and sold 65,438 pagers. Ranked first among domestic brands, Bird successfully took off and won a place for the national industry in this pager market competition. Therefore, the waveguide series pagers, especially the "first" mentioned above, undoubtedly have high collection value. Many Chinese and foreign brands, such as NEC, Panasonic, Kembao, etc., may increase the difficulty of collection due to their scarcity. In addition, pagers with different shapes are also worth collecting. At that time, in addition to the continuous expansion of functions, in order to attract consumers' attention, many manufacturers also put some brains into the design of pagers and introduced some unique and interesting pagers. There were not many kinds and quantities of these pagers, and the penetration rate was limited at that time. Therefore, it is not easy to find them now.

Editing this "Paging Times" is drifting away.

"At present, paging is still used in parts of northern China, and in the northwest, the paging industry is becoming history." Wang Lin, director of the Radio Management Office of the Communication Administration of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said.

At the beginning of 2007, Gansu Province, located in the northwest inland of China, bid farewell to the "paging era". Jinchang North Road, located near Dongfanghong Square in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was once a famous "paging street", when most paging outlets in Lanzhou City gathered. But now, it's hard to see pagers here, replaced by unique mobile phones.

In Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the smallest province in the west of China, there are 1997 paging stations 14, 300 stations and 350,000 users. However, since 2000, paging service has been shrinking at an annual rate of 30%. By 2003, there were only 5,000 users, 2 paging stations and 60 stations in the local paging industry. At present, there are only two paging stations in Ningxia, China Unicom and China Railcom, of which China Unicom has only five stations with 500 users. CTT has 12 stations, with less than 1000 users, and has been mainly used as an internal railway communication system.

"The current situation of paging industry is the inevitable trend of economic and communication technology development." Professor Nie from School of Economics and Management of Lanzhou University said that the continuous progress of communication technology has improved the functions of mobile phones and can replace the existing functions of almost all pagers. The continuous reduction of mobile phone charges and the introduction of various preferential measures have also made mobile phones more and more popular, making the paging industry lose its price advantage; Under the condition of market economy, the pace of people's life is accelerating, which requires faster, more convenient and cheaper communication means, and mobile phones are obviously more in line with this demand.

Relevant information shows that by the end of 2007 10, the total number of mobile phone users in China has exceeded 320 million. Before 2007 10 months, China added 5.5 million mobile phones every month.

"At present, China's economy and technology are in a stage of rapid development. In order to adapt to the high-quality living standard and the accelerating pace of work, it is necessary to continuously popularize and use more advanced communication tools, which is the result of the country's progress and development. " An ordinary citizen of Yinchuan said.

Edit this paragraph paging industry: ten years of "profiteering"

Paging industry is a kind of early development in China communication field. From 65438 to 0984, Shanghai took the lead in establishing wireless paging service in China. Since 1990s, the number of paging users in China has increased rapidly year by year, and the paging industry has created a profiteering era of 10. During the four years from 1995 to 1998, the number of new paging users in China exceeded15.93 million every year. The paging industry in China reached its peak in 2000. Since then, the paging market has been shrinking.

Since 2002, after a short period of bleak operation, the paging industry in China has gradually withdrawn from the life of ordinary people in economically underdeveloped northern cities from the economically developed south. In the middle and late 1990s, the paging industry in Shenzhen was in its heyday. 1997 There are 82 paging enterprises in Shenzhen with 1.8 million users. By the end of 2002, there was only 2 1 with less than 400,000 users. In the same year, 90% paging stations in Tianjin withdrew from the market.

Mobile phones are the "ultimate killer" of pagers. Not only does the powerful function of the mobile phone make the pager "helpless", but the price is getting cheaper and cheaper, so many people leave the pager behind after buying the mobile phone. More importantly, SMS has become the "curse" of wireless paging to some extent. It is understood that the trend of mobile phone replacing wireless paging appeared as early as 2000, and this trend intensified rapidly in 2002, which was out of control. By the end of 2002, the total number of telephone users in China reached more than 400 million, including more than 200 million mobile phone users and more than 200 million fixed phone users. The national telephone penetration rate reached 3 1.99 per 100 people, the mobile phone penetration rate reached 4.95 per 100 people, and the number of Internet users reached 48.29 million. At that time, there were only19.73 million wireless paging users in China, which was16.32 million fewer than that in 2006.

Motorola, once the world's largest pager manufacturer, stopped producing pagers a few years ago because of the depression of the paging industry. The reporter noticed that at present, it is difficult to see pagers in large and small communication equipment stores, and it is replaced by an exquisite mobile phone. The boss of a paging company in Yinchuan said helplessly that the prices of mobile phones and pagers are getting closer and closer, and pagers have no comparative advantage, so the paging industry is bound to decline. It is an irresistible law that new things replace old things.

Can the paging industry survive in the transition?

In view of the shutdown of paging stations and the shrinking paging business, people in the paging industry believe that if the paging industry wants to continue to survive and develop, it must explore the transformation to high-level and professional services such as stock information, logistics information and call center.

In northwest China, Gansu Tianma Communication Co., Ltd. began to explore stock information service as early as 1995. After several years' development, Tianma Paging has transformed to stock information as its main business and has a certain number of fixed users.

Relevant experts believe that the new business is more specialized than the simple "recruiting" business before, requiring practitioners to have various professional knowledge such as stocks, logistics and corporate advertising. These businesses have their own advantages. At present, investors can receive information from paging stations through stock quotation machines, or browse information through the Internet on mobile phones and computers. There won't be much difference in service quality, but the paging station only charges more than 20 yuan a month, and the mobile phone Internet access costs at least 600 yuan. For the working class, the automatic stock quotation recorder is naturally the first choice.

There are also many constraints in developing new business. Call center is a promising new business. According to insiders, it is a comprehensive information service system established by CTI (Integrated Computer Network and Telephone Communication), which can enable enterprises to handle as many user calls as possible in the shortest time, including user consultation, inquiry, ordering, complaints, etc., and provide good services for enterprise users. Using call center service, enterprises can save a lot of costs, which also requires employees in the paging industry to have higher quality in the future.

In fact, some paging stations that were once large but closed have tried to develop new services, but most of them ended in failure. Experts believe that the reasons for the failure are: first, the lack of obvious competitive advantage, the increasingly perfect information service function of mobile phones, mobile phones can still do all the functions of pagers; Second, the market for new business is still in the development stage, and it will take some time for the market to be fully mature. In this "green and yellow" period, many paging stations have no ability to open up the market or even maintain the minimum operation.

Some experts believe that with the development of economy and the change of people's management concept, call center and stock information, including some new services that may be developed in the future, still have certain development prospects, and these services may be re-launched when the time is ripe.