DUBLIN, Ireland-Page One has become the first United Kingdom-based paging operator to launch FLEX, with the promise of smaller, more flexible and affordable paging devices for consumers. As Global Wireless went to press, BT (British Telecommunications plc) Mobile was the only other U.K. operator that had committed to using FLEX.
Page One Chief Executive Officer Stan Sech said there were several factors behind the company’s decision to adopt FLEX: “We believe that paging needs to be a low-cost communications option, and this technology gives the consumer a wider choice of products. High speeds allow for increased network capacity and additional features.”
Sech claims that Page One’s new FLEX product is the smallest pager available in the United Kingdom. Using FLEX also opens up other protocols, such as ReFLEX, a two-way paging technology; and InFLEXion, a voice paging standard.
“With the ERMES (European Radio Messaging Service) protocol, the product range has been limited and relatively expensive, although prices have moved close to those available via POCSAG,” he added. In the long term, Sech believes manufacturers will produce more FLEX pagers and that this will lead to cheaper, more feature-rich products. Already, there are 30 million FLEX pagers in use globally, he said.
However, the company has not yet discarded the pan-European ERMES standard. It holds an ERMES license as well.
“Our plan is to offer pan-European paging using these channels,” said Sech. “At the moment our hands are full building and separating the FLEX channel, but as demand changes we will develop the ERMES network.”
Alan Wilkinson, chairman of the U.K. Paging Industry Association, has campaigned for this type of freedom of choice for operators between agreed pan-European or global protocols, such as ERMES and FLEX.
He reports 46-percent market growth for the U.K. paging market last year, following an expansion of more than 30 percent in 1996.
“Paging is popular because of alphanumeric messaging, and this type of service needs spectrum,” said Wilkinson. “You can only place so much information down a channel.
“The FLEX system allows operators to grow their system incrementally because it comes with different speeds, whereas ERMES operates at only one speed,” he said, underlining a point also made by Page One’s Sech. “High-speed paging requires more infrastructure investment since more transmitter base stations are required. However, the ERMES channels are still an option.”
Spectrum pricing has been introduced in the United Kingdom, and this is another motivation for operators to use as little spectrum as possible and surrender under-utilized channels. From the U.K. Radio Authority’s perspective, more efficient use of spectrum will open up capacity for other services.
Two-way communications is seen as the next major paging trend in Europe, and Wilkinson is very confident about the future of such systems. FLEX has a two-way paging capability with ReFLEX, and if ERMES has not developed a similar capability, there may be a demand to allow FLEX on channels reserved for ERMES. This would result in FLEX becoming an international or pan-European system; however, there is no definite indication about when this could happen.
Wilkinson believes paging will continue to thrive despite the development of mobile-phone technology and falling handset prices.
“At the end of 1997 there were 1.64 million pagers in the U.K.,” he said. “Our forecast for 2008 is for that figure to rise above 5.5 million, and this does not count two-way or telemetry systems.”
“Pagers offer better coverage, and the battery life has been extended significantly,” added Sech. “There is a case for using a pager with a mobile phone, not just instead of a mobile phone.”
