WASHINGTON- The demand for two-way messaging services is high among current paging users, as reported by Economic and Management Consultants International Inc. in a recent survey, which is part of the firm’s Pagetrac ’96: Consumer Trends in Paging report.
The annual study tracks demographics, preferences of users in major U.S. markets, usage habits, interest in new services and areas of future growth.
On average, paging users said 82 percent of their pages need a response, and almost two-thirds of those surveyed said all their pages need a response, said the Washington, D.C., research firm.
Also, two-thirds of paging users surveyed said they considered it “very important” to know that their page was received.
These results, said EMCI, “indicate a high level of potential demand for new paging services.”
Elliot Hamilton, director of EMCI’s North America Wireless Group, said “Pagetrac ’96 clearly indicates a market for two-way messaging. It is up to the carriers to develop appropriate pricing and form factor to capture this demand.”
EMCI reported that 59 percent of paging users and 12 percent of nonusers showed interest in subscribing to guaranteed messaging. Sixty-one percent of paging users and 15 percent of nonusers expressed interest in voice messaging.
Thirteen percent of users said they definitely would sign up for guaranteed messaging and 18 percent said they would definitely subscribe to voice messaging.
Results of the study also make a statement about the relative influence of broadband personal communications services and some new cellular services-whereby the phones have pager capability built in-on paging.
“Despite the advent of short messaging service over cellular and PCS phones, the ability to leave a pager turned on for extended periods without undue concern for battery life remains a strong competitive feature of paging,” said the firm.
Sixty percent of paging users keep their pager turned on 24 hours a day, said EMCI and 87 percent keep their pagers turned on more than 8 hours a day.
