Pagers have come a long way since the days when a beep sent you to the telephone to listen to a message. Pagers now receive notes of up to 240 characters, long enough for short e-mails, headline news feeds, and other up-to-the-minute content broadcasts.
Oakland, California-based Notable Technologies developed AirNote as an all-in-one solution to advanced paging. Notable is not actually a network operator itself: the company resells service on the SkyTel and PageNet national networks. Notable develops the communications software to provide numerous options for integrating pagers into your local e-mail system and packages it with a standard pager into a single box you can purchase for all your paging needs.
As with many of today's alphanumeric pagers, AirNote pagers come with an Internet address (idnumber@airnote.net). Additionally, AirNote provides a real name alias (yourname@airnote.net), and will also send a copy of all messages to another e-mail address of your choice. Windows users can run gateway software to forward messages out of many popular LAN e-mail packages to the pager. The more standard paging options (operator-assisted and TouchTone messaging, as well as voicemail notification pages) are all supported.
AirNote falls into the category of services better financed by your employer - coverage in one region (West, Midwest, etc.) plus 200 messages costs US$109.95 per month. According to Notable Technologies, one message is equal to 40 characters, so a 240-character e-mail message counts as six. Each message above 200 costs 60 cents. Voicemail boxes and operator-assisted pages are extra.
Still, for the battle-hardened business traveler, pagers are a must-carry item, and AirNote has put together a well-integrated package of services to keep you connected. You'll realize just how connected you are when you're driving home and your spouse pages you with a grocery list of things to pick up on your way. "Sorry dear, I guess my batteries must have run out."
AirNote: US$349. Notable Technologies Inc.: (800) 732 9900, +1 (510) 208 4400.
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