Response Paging Can Be Your Back-up, Safety Net!
Public safety professionals who persist in using cell phone technologies to communicate critical messages should consider implementing an affordable and reliable response paging system as a back-up solution. Cellular technologies are just too failure-prone to be used as a sole means for public safety critical messaging.
For example, look at what happened recently in North Adams, MA when both Verizon and AT&T cell systems failed due to downed towers. Businesses relying on cell phones suffered — “It was miserable,” said Alex Kostopoulos, owner of Supreme Pizza on Main Street. “We had hundreds of calls that people couldn’t hear them. It was terrible. We had to hang up on people and pray they could get online and order.”
More importantly all public safety messaging that relied solely on cellular technology failed for several days.
A joint statement from the cellular phone companies said: “It’s going to take a couple months to get the actual cell towers fully repaired. But in the meantime, the portable towers are expected to soon fully restore service temporarily.”
An affordable and dependable response paging system that DOES NOT rely on cell towers would have provided public safety professionals with an immediate back-up. A response paging system is the MOST dependable communications medium available to ensure your critical messages will get through. The technology is also much less costly than cell phones, ranging in price up to $150. A response paging device, using text as its communication medium, allows you to confirm that your message has been received and even when the recipient is responding to your critical message. The battery life of response pagers is also much longer than cell or smart phones.
If you are not using response paging as your primary critical messaging medium, it should certainly be your back-up safety net!