ASHINGTON-Pointing the way to continued success, the paging industry saw dramatic changes in 1995 as a series of firsts were accomplished by both carriers and manufacturers, said Economic Management and Consultants International Inc. in its annual study called The State of the U.S. Paging Industry: 1996.
According to the report, for the first time in the industry two-way pagers became commercially available, alphanumeric pagers increased market share to double its previous size, net paging subscribers increased by more than 8 million and personal paging use increased to 37 percent.
In studying the growth in alphanumeric paging use, EMCI found that alphanumeric pagers increased in market share from 7 percent in 1994 to 10 percent in 1995. EMCI attributes the increase to a series of factors in the industry relating to the decrease in equipment and airtime prices for alphanumeric pagers, the increased use of higher baud rates leading to added capacity to load alphanumeric pagers and consumers’ desire for enhanced paging services.
In 1995, the paging industry grew by more than 8 million, reaching a total of more than 34 million for the year. EMCI projects the total to reach 61 million by 2000. Consumers, as opposed to business users, have driven this growth, said EMCI.
This survey showed new subscribers used their pagers for personal reasons 65 percent of the time.
