They are simple, reliable, cheap, and secure messaging tools. Pagers are generally not dangerous unless intended to be so, and they remain relevant and useful nowadays, experts told Khaleej Times.
Once a staple of communication used by upwardly mobile professionals such as doctors and journalists back in the 1980s up to the late 1990s, pagers or beepers gave way to the more versatile cellphones and smartphones at the turn of the 21st century. But they were not exactly made extinct.
“Pagers are still being used nowadays because they are generally deemed safe. They are not connected to any public network, like PSTN (public switched telephone network), and a paging service is a standalone system that is privately owned,” said Dubai-based IT security expert Rayad Kamal Ayub, managing director of Rayad Group.
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Pagers also leave a small electronic communication footprint making it less prone to hacking or surveillance. They work on radio waves and an operator can send a message by radio frequency without internet or cellular networks. “They are a safe backup to mobile phones for the purpose of sending SMS or short message service,” noted Ayub.
To put it simply, pagers are useful for situations where mobile or cellphone use is unreliable. “What happened in Lebanon, was the physical equivalent of planting an IED (improvised explosive device) in a pager. Same is possible for old mobile phones that have removable batteries,” Ayub observed.
Outdated but still in use
Rex Bacarra, Ph.D., university professor of Philosophy and Ethics based in Abu Dhabi – who last used a pager 25 years ago – said he was not surprised to hear that pagers were still used in areas where mobile phone use is problematic.
“It’s 2024 and pagers are largely outdated for everyday use since mobile phones have taken over communications, but they are still relevant in some specific industries due to their simplicity and the ability to work in areas with low-signal,” he told Khaleej Times, adding: “Pagers are still used for delivering short messages where constant communication is important like in hospitals, where they are used to summon a doctor to an emergency.”
Bacarra added: “I don’t think pagers are dangerous – they have very minimal power requirements, unlike smartphones, and they are extremely reliable in environments with limited cellphone coverage.”
“Comparatively speaking, pagers are safer than mobile phones. However, messages sent through pagers are not encrypted – unlike digital phones – and they can easily be intercepted. But all these communication devices – pagers and mobile phones are generally safe. Let’s be realistic though, as incidents like the Samsung battery explosions that happened years ago highlight the risk associated with using these devices with lithium-ion batteries. There are other issue like overheating, manufacturing defects or chargers that are incompatible with phones can often lead to dangerous situations,” Bacarra continued.
He added: “The question is: Does the benefit outweigh the cost? Mobile phones are currently indispensable due to their features that benefit people, more than the risks associated with them. The same goes for pagers.”
Ayub agreed. He said there are no security issues with a pager, if not tampered with. “The hardware could have been tampered prior to delivery to users,” he added, explaining: “A point to be noted is that pagers are manufactured in small quantity and it could be easy to convert them into an IED.”
Ayub gave an advice: “We should buy our electronics from a known source and not from the grey market without warranties or source of inventory.”
Meanwhile, Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has demanded accountability for the Lebanon pager blasts.
He described the blasts as “shocking”, and said their impact on civilians was “unacceptable”. The explosions killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded nearly 3,000 others.