Can a Blackberry be paged?

[hnwosu]

I use a pager at work because I am on call throughout the day. Is there a way that a blackberry can recieve pages, similar to how my pager recieves pages. The pager is an one way alhanumeric pager, my boss has a 2 way and he can send me pages directly. I was thinking about the PIN number, but that is only for BB to BB messages. Has anyone had any experience with this?

-HeCareth

[juwaack68]

Yes, you can send a page to a Blackberry - it's considered a Text or SMS Message. Nextel devices use the format of mynumber@<hidden> (where my number is the full 10 digit cell number).

When the page comes in, the icon is slightly tilted. My old 7520 wouldn't allow me to see who it was from, just the subject and body. On the 7100i I can see who it's from as well as reply to it.

I remember seeing a post somewhere that listed all of the Text Messaging formats for all of the different carriers, but I can't seem to find it now....

[MozMan68]

For Cingular, it comes up as an option when you enter the person's email....my wife does it all the time when I do not answer her calls. Shows up on the messege screen with a "P" instead of an envelope with the call back number as the subject.

[Pete]

You can also use our service called Pagica. You are assigned a phone number (toll free in North America) and it operated just like a traditional numeric pager. You use our Web based control panel to manage where you rmessages are sent.

Other features include: Logging, scheduling and message translation

-Pete

[wuberry]

For Cingular, it comes up as an option when you enter the person's email....my wife does it all the time when I do not answer her calls. Shows up on the messege screen with a "P" instead of an envelope with the call back number as the subject.

Could you please provide some additional details?

Is this something you do from the Cingular Web site or the BWC? Maybe I'm just missing the point, but I don't understand where you're entering the person's e-mail address to get the option to send a page to the BB.

Many thanks

[MozMan68]

sorry...I meant voicemail...it says something like "leave a messege after the tone...or to page this person, press 1..."

When you press whatever number they tell you to press, you enter your call back number and it sends a page to the BB which shows up as a messege as I stated above.

[Mr Pink57]

Yes, you can send a page to a Blackberry - it's considered a Text or SMS Message. Nextel devices use the format of mynumber@<hidden> (where my number is the full 10 digit cell number).

When the page comes in, the icon is slightly tilted. My old 7520 wouldn't allow me to see who it was from, just the subject and body. On the 7100i I can see who it's from as well as reply to it.

I remember seeing a post somewhere that listed all of the Text Messaging formats for all of the different carriers, but I can't seem to find it now....

He would have better luck with mynumber@<hidden>, since this is the actual paging system. You get a message but you cannot reply to it.

pink

[compscibOi]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7250/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

I have a Cingular phone and a Verizon Blackberry - Cingular Voicemal allows anyone to send a page as long as the person your sending the page from in voicemail is a Cingular customer.

[stonent]

Hmm the obvious thing is can he send an e-mail to you from his pager?

Is it like a Motorola Talkabout pager or Skytel or something like that?

[ShaneToronto]

This looks like an awesome service and I'm in the 416 area code (Toronto) so it's perfect for me.

Has anyone used this servie or heard anything about it? The fact that they have essentially a 90 day cancellation policy (even though it's only C$10 a month) sets off a red flag for me. I am not in the habit of doing business with companies who need to include this in their client agreement- suggests to me that their service quality alone isn't enough to keep clients. Nor do they do their own credit card processing- they outsource. Seems a little fly-by-night and they don't have too much info on the web.

Exactly what I am looking for, but if there's a more well-known alternative I would likely rather go with them.

No information on their site about personalization feature, etc. Looks like great features though. Local too- that's a plus!

Any feedback from users would be useful.

Thanks..
Shane.

p.s.> not trying to be negative. just had too many experiences with small companies who can't deliver on the internet. ;)


Edited: was a typo wonderland.

You can also use our service called Pagica. You are assigned a phone number (toll free in North America) and it operated just like a traditional numeric pager. You use our Web based control panel to manage where you rmessages are sent.

Other features include: Logging, scheduling and message translation

-Pete

[MobileRC]

I would be very interested in this as well but the mynumber@<hidden> solution I think is a poor one. Anyone had experience with Pagica?

[JDWallace]

Here is a link to the listings that JUWAAK was talking about, or at least one of them...

http://www.blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=18088

[wuberry]

sorry...I meant voicemail...it says something like "leave a messege after the tone...or to page this person, press 1..."

When you press whatever number they tell you to press, you enter your call back number and it sends a page to the BB which shows up as a messege as I stated above.

Got it. Thanks for the additional information. I've been having numeric pages sent through Cingular voicemail and it seems to work fine.

There's another paging service for BlackBerries that I found some time ago. I haven't tried it, so I can only pass along the identity with no recommendation for or against.

http://www.numericpage.com/

[sfrt10]

Cingular just came out with a pagging service I think its $9.00 a month that works just like a pager works but this way you only carry one device if you have service you can be paged.

[sfrt10]

It's called Enterprise paging here is the link enterprise.paging.support@<hidden>

[Soapm]

Like Stonet asked, sounds like you currently have a company pager. If so what kind is it? I have skytel and you can go in thier site and just forward your pages to your BB.

[wuberry]

I got the free trial (30 minutes) for numeric page. One must open the message to see the number paged.

I think Pagica sends the numeric page in the "Subject" field, so it's visible in the mesage log without opening the message. They also have a three-day free trial. They cost about twice as much as numeric page, though.

Has anyone had any experience with Pagica?

[compscibOi]

If you have Cingular, and the person doesn't answer and the voicemail kicks in, it says something like " The Cingular customer you are trying to reach is unavailable, to leave a numeric page, enter your number now. To leave a voice message, begin recording after the tone, after you have recorded your message, press # for more options - BEEP"


It doesn't cost anything extra its free!

[wuberry]

If you have Cingular, and the person doesn't answer and the voicemail kicks in, it says something like " The Cingular customer you are trying to reach is unavailable, to leave a numeric page, enter your number now. To leave a voice message, begin recording after the tone, after you have recorded your message, press # for more options - BEEP"


It doesn't cost anything extra its free!


Thanks very much for the reply. That's what I'm using now. Maybe I should just keep doing that and save some money.

[torifile]

Sometimes you don't want people to have your actual phone number or would prefer you get paged as opposed to having your phone number called. I'm going to look into the cingular service to see if it's worth it.

[wuberry]

Sometimes you don't want people to have your actual phone number or would prefer you get paged as opposed to having your phone number called. I'm going to look into the cingular service to see if it's worth it.


That's a good point. To get a page, one received a phone call, it goes to voicemail, and then one receives the numeric page. Ideally, I'd like only to receive the page instead of both.

As I recall, Cingular Enterprise Paging is about $10/month and there's no toll-free number. (It's a 408 area code.)

Pagica is about $7.00/month and has a toll-free number.

Numeric page is $40/year and has a toll-free number.

All the costs are in US dollars.

[evilcaptain]

I have a pager and I did not want to carry it with my BB. I have my pages emailed to my blackberry. My Skytel pager has an option to have a copy of the pages sent to an email address. I set my filters on my BB so that the pages are level 1 messages and set it to vibrate/beep on arrival. Works great. But that does not solve the problem of removing and not paying for a pager and only having the BB just reducing what needs to be carried.

[d123456]

For Cingular they have a phone number that you can dial to page a person. All you need is the persons phone number.

18008566122

No need to dial the persons number and wait for their voicemail to pop up.




.

[Soapm]

I have a pager and I did not want to carry it with my BB. I have my pages emailed to my blackberry. My Skytel pager has an option to have a copy of the pages sent to an email address. I set my filters on my BB so that the pages are level 1 messages and set it to vibrate/beep on arrival. Works great. But that does not solve the problem of removing and not paying for a pager and only having the BB just reducing what needs to be carried.

This is what I do. Luckily the job pays for the pager.

[MooseBerry]

I think I'm going to try out the NumericPage. I just tried Pagica (trial) and it works well. The nice thing about Pagica is that you can send the page to as many phones, devices and email addresses as you'd like. But, NumericPage is less then half the annual price.

[Teledatageek]

I've used NumericPage for about a year and it has worked very well for the most part.

I have my office voicemail system (which can't do e-mail notification yet....) call the toll free number.

I get an e-mail on my 7250 notifying me to check voicemail. I use a rule to make their e-mails Level 1.

[wuberry]

For Cingular they have a phone number that you can dial to page a person. All you need is the persons phone number.

18008566122

No need to dial the persons number and wait for their voicemail to pop up.
.

Many thanks. This would have been just what I was looking for and it's free, but ...

I'm using a piece of equipment that automatically sends numeric pages. It can handle the number to call, PINs, pauses, -- anything before it delivers the numberic message. However, it can't deliver any characters after it sends the numeric message; it can only hang up.

I tried this number and -- as far as I can tell -- it requires the ending "#" for the message to be sent. Just hanging up doesn't work. (Incidentally, just hanging up does work for the cut-through paging with Cingular voicemail.)

[Tylar]

I use a pager at work because I am on call throughout the day. Is there a way that a blackberry can recieve pages, similar to how my pager recieves pages. The pager is an one way alhanumeric pager, my boss has a 2 way and he can send me pages directly. I was thinking about the PIN number, but that is only for BB to BB messages. Has anyone had any experience with this?

-HeCareth

I see you have a lot of responses and rather than spend the time reading all of them to save being redundant, here's what I do.

I receive "on a good day" about ~300 pages from an NMS system and also have BES connectivity. Nextel 7520, i found that the most efficient way to have this dealt with was the following:

1. email does nothing other than flash an LED for email received via BES for my work addy. I get a lot of email and don't want to be woke up for something I don't care to see until 0800 the following morning.

2. I have the paging system send to <me>@<hidden> and have that web service send them as Level 1 messages. Level 1 messages (PIN, SMS and Web emails) alarm so that I'm alerted to any action the NMS is paging me on.

I've found this to be quite effective in my sanity. I was quite happy to have this enabled as there is a text limitation on the SMS messages, the paging system can't PIN me, and I didn't want to carry around my Skytel Timeport pager (brick) AND my CrackBerry at teh same time. It'd kill my posture and break belts. :razz:

[wuberry]

I signed up for the Pagica free trial and it works great. I did have to "play" with the settings on the equipment that sends the automated page, but it wasn't too bad. You can also set delivery schedules within the Pagica Web site and they provide an on-line log of all pages.

Two final questions. Pagica sends the numeric page in the subject line of an e-mail that can be sent to multiple addresses, as was mentioned earlier.

I'm on Cingular. As I understand it, if I have the e-mail sent to my account on the BES, it's covered under the unlimited data plan. However, if I have it sent to XXXXXXX@<hidden>, I get charged for it as an SMS. Is that right? Is there any advantage to using the XXXXXXX@<hidden> address?

Many thanks for the help.

[MooseBerry]

Is there any advantage to using the XXXXXXX@<hidden> address?

Many thanks for the help.

The way you're doing it, your getting a txt message. Why don't you send them to your BB email address instead? It's instant and there's no charge.
It's your number@<hidden>
Try that.

[wuberry]

I'll try that. Many thanks for the response and the help.

[MooseBerry]

Your very welcome! It's why we're all here :smile:

[zygut]

2. I have the paging system send to <me>@<hidden> and have that web service send them as Level 1 messages. Level 1 messages (PIN, SMS and Web emails) alarm so that I'm alerted to any action the NMS is paging me on.


I tried this, but I found that the Level 1 message alert settings are insufficient. I can set it to Notify three times, but after that the only thing you can have it do is to flash the LED. This means if I go to sleep and I get paged and don't wake up after the first 3 notifying beeps, it wont try again. Also, if I leave the room and it pages, then when I come back the LED flashing is no different than it always flashes (Green). During the actual notification it flashes red, but after that its green.

Have you found a better way to handle this?

[JeffW]

I use this service for managing alerts.

http://www.webmessenger.com/products/mablackberry.htm

I can set rules that allow for audible alerts when I went them and silent alerts at other times. Additionally, I was able to set up the pager aspect to go audible and keep beeping and led flashing all the time.

[Soapm]

What the BB needs is the old 3 to 5 minute reminder chirp. I send this as a suggestion once a month to bbsuggestions@<hidden> however, they stopped responding a few months ago. I think they put me on the kill list.

[kobersteen]

I may be trying to integrate two different technologies, but what about alpha-pages? The Fire Department and Labor Local that I work for use CapCodes and Motorola Advisor Elites (http://www.usamobility.com/bus_solutions/wireless_messaging/products_services/details/advisorelite.htm). The fire department sends out incident notifications, recall notificaitons and other vital info via the pager.

Getting the Labor Local to use e-mail and my BB is easy, but the fire department deals with several hundred pagers and are stuck on the CapCode technology.

Is there a way to make it so I recieve the departments text pages on my BB 7520?

Thanks!

[cbb77]

I tried this, but I found that the Level 1 message alert settings are insufficient. I can set it to Notify three times, but after that the only thing you can have it do is to flash the LED. This means if I go to sleep and I get paged and don't wake up after the first 3 notifying beeps, it wont try again. Also, if I leave the room and it pages, then when I come back the LED flashing is no different than it always flashes (Green). During the actual notification it flashes red, but after that its green.

Have you found a better way to handle this?


I just found an app that allows me to use the blackberry as a pager. It's called Notifire and works quite well. It allows you to define the style of rings / vibrate options on the blackberry. I am basically on 24x7 support for my work. We have a system that pages out; which I just configured with my email address. I then configured Notifire to ring and vibrate forver until I answer the message. You can define all sorts of scenarios. I have specific rings for different types of messgaes as well as shutoff all the email message alerts for standard messages. Definitely worth trying out. I picked it up at Handango for $16. Actual name is Notifire Professional. Support is also great. Had an issue with it working properly on my 8700c. Shot off an email and received response back within 20 mins with updated version to install. Well worth the $16!

[vhic]

Soapm,
I agree with you:: what is needed is the 3 to 5 minute reminder chirp. Speaking of the "reminder chirp", has anyone using the 8700c been able to find the chirp for this model. Been looking for it online and everywhere since I got my 8700c. No luck!

Thanks!

[ecl3]

I use the tmobile voicemail option for this. I have recorded a custom voicemail answer message that says "Hello, this is xxx. To send a page press 5" I then pause for a few seconds and then say "or you can leave me a voice message after the beep". Most of my office contacts thus do not know that this is my cellphone number. I list it on my contact info as a pager. The numeric message goes through instantly and shows up as a SMS. As I don't use SMS often, I have the alert setting for SMS as a vibrate-tone.

It works well and it's free.

[Soapm]

I then configured Notifire to ring and vibrate forver until I answer the message.

The problem with this is it will run the battery down if you for say, leave it at the house or sleeping off a good drunk. The advantage of the reminder chirp is it is battery friendly. What it would do is every 3 to 5 minutes you get a single chirp that says hey, I need attention.

Is there a way to make it so I recieve the departments text pages on my BB 7520?.

I believe your answer to this will be with your pager settings. I carry a skytel for my company, I was able to log in my account on the skytel website and forward all my pages to my work email address. I then set a filter to make anything from @<hidden> a level 1 message. You have to get creative but there are many ways to get a message to your BB.

I rely to their pagers by using xxxxxxxxxx@<hidden> which I have most folks loaded as a secondary email addy.

I have recorded a custom voicemail answer message that says "Hello, this is xxx. To send a page press 5" I then pause for a few seconds and then say "or you can leave me a voice message after the beep".

Now that's funny and ghetto at the sametime...

[cbb77]

The problem with this is it will run the battery down if you for say, leave it at the house or sleeping off a good drunk. The advantage of the reminder chirp is it is battery friendly. What it would do is every 3 to 5 minutes you get a single chirp that says hey, I need attention.




While this is true, if I don't answer the page, I will have bigger issues to worry about as I am on call 24x7. The battery drain will be the least of my worries.

[kobersteen]

I believe your answer to this will be with your pager settings. I carry a skytel for my company, I was able to log in my account on the skytel website and forward all my pages to my work email address. I then set a filter to make anything from @<hidden> a level 1 message. You have to get creative but there are many ways to get a message to your BB.

I rely to their pagers by using xxxxxxxxxx@<hidden> which I have most folks loaded as a secondary email addy.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into that...

[kobersteen]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into that...


Metrocall/USA Mobility says 'no can do'. Rat bastards.

:x

[btemple8]

Maybe I've missed it somewhere in this conversation, but if my main usage for paging is for a home voice mail system. The sytem will notify me by paging if someone leaves me a message at home. I have a 7520 with Nextel and run BES.
If the home voice mail system is only capable of sending "paging" notifications and the setup for the notifications only accepts a phone number (and a PIN if needed), will a notification reach me if it sends a page to 5023762262 ? I cannot put an email address in the voice mail system, only a phone number and an optional PIN. Is there a solution?

[btemple8]

Nevermind. I figured out it would be SMS. But in my case it's not actually paging, it's ringing the number, so my original question is not applicable.
Thank you.

[Soapm]

But in my case it's not actually paging, it's ringing the number, Thank you.

You saying it calls you to say you have a voicemail?

[Teledatageek]

I've used NumericPage for about a year and it has worked very well for the most part.

I have my office voicemail system (which can't do e-mail notification yet....) call the toll free number.

I get an e-mail on my 7250 notifying me to check voicemail. I use a rule to make their e-mails Level 1.

Sadly I just received an e-mail from the NumericPage folks saying they are ceasing operations this weekend. I have viewed the posts here and I haven't found another service like it. Anyone have any other suggestions as to turning a numeric page from a voicemail system into an e-mail?

It's something I have grown to rely upon so I'm hoping to find something soon.....

Thanks!

[Teledatageek]

Sadly I just received an e-mail from the NumericPage folks saying they are ceasing operations this weekend. I have viewed the posts here and I haven't found another service like it. Anyone have any other suggestions as to turning a numeric page from a voicemail system into an e-mail?

It's something I have grown to rely upon so I'm hoping to find something soon.....

Thanks!

I don't normally answer my own posts, but I did find a solution and wanted to share....

After more digging, I disovered Pagica.com. Their service while more expensive provides the same functionality as Numericpage.com. A bit better actually since no PIN number is required, you just get your own toll free pager number that is converted to an e-mail.

Works great and I'm back in business.

[XDS]

Wirelessly posted (7290: BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Still "soapm"'s post has yet to be looked into .

An alternating AND customizable reminder option for notifications is greatly needed.

This "chirp" method is now second on my priority and I think you would find it would be on the priority list of most of the administration of the people who lead this forum.

Unfortunately I don't seeing A solution coming out in the near future.


Has anyone looked into if or not Notifire PRO would be capable of this "chirp" method.


I will put this at the top of my "sh[i]i[i]t list of things to look into for my BB's :P

[wuberry]

I don't normally answer my own posts, but I did find a solution and wanted to share....

After more digging, I disovered Pagica.com. Their service while more expensive provides the same functionality as Numericpage.com. A bit better actually since no PIN number is required, you just get your own toll free pager number that is converted to an e-mail.

Works great and I'm back in business.

I've been using Pagica for several months now -- I found out about it via this thread -- and agree. It works great.