Chairman Critical Messaging Association Reacts on Paging Incident in Middle East

Chairman of the Critical Messaging Association and CEO of e*Message WIS, in a statement on Social Media, reacts on the incident that killed multiple people and injured thousands across Lebanon on tuesday..

In an unofficial post on Social Media, Chairman of the CMA (Critical Messaging Association), Dietmar Gollnick  reacted on the incident with pagers that killed multiple people and injured thousands across Lebanon on tuesday.

Dietmar Gollnick stated:

Since yesterday, a device has been in news that is otherwise not so familiar to masses as a communication device. In US, it was once a means of mass communication to keep telephone charges under control through a “page”. Some say that name of the device comes from the hotel bellboy (Ger: "Page"), who makes announcement to many guests at same time.

Today, many hundreds of thousends of employees in commercial or government organizations around the world use pagers for professional purposes. That is good and right. Alerts and information are sent securely and independently of other communication networks, such as standard mobile telephony. In hospitals, in fire department, in energy supply, in industry, for warning and alerting the public, for example.

Yesterday, X and even the solid TV-News were full of sometimes nonsensical information about pagers. No, traditional (non hybrid, using other independent technologies) pagers are not sending. No, cell phone existed before pager. Please visit Communications Museum near Berlin. 1918: German "Deutsche Reichsbahn" is starting first mobile telephony trial.
.
No, a pager is not dangerous. Some say they are quite harmless. For example, it does not emit radiation. Because: P2M (technology so named by ETSI and CEPT) is - like radio and television - intended for sending messages or information or warnings. And no, the pager cannot be replaced by cell phone, they are each other supplements. If this had been better taken into account during flood in Ahrtal valley, the warning and information would have been much better.

Hundreds of thousands of firefighters use pagers only in Germany. Same and higher numbers of pagers using in healthcare, especially in USA and UK and in many countries. May be news speaker in TV does not know, but in case of the cases if they will call fire service or ambulancy, it will be called via paging.

Now pagers were probably used in the Middle East, which may have exploded or been detonated at the same time. The web is awash with speculation. A Taiwanese manufacturer makes statements. Obviously, these used in ME are not somehow commercially available versions of devices. And quite obviously the focus on pagers is also due to the fact that some people are less familiar with them as a means of communication than cell phones.

But, dear journalists: have you asked the manufacturers of mobile phones that may have been intentionally detonated in past and for years? Right - cell phone was the forerunner.

Let's be clear once again: Paging transmission technology that is really necessary and so sensible and used far too little and naturally assigned as a frequency by e.g. Bundesnetzagentur or Federal Communications Commission may have novelty value for the ignorant, but it is only dangerous to use if - to put it mildly - you don't pay attention to your supply chain, which applies to everything in the world.