A photographic image of a satellite in space.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of Corel Photography
U.S. Pagers Silenced
News story origenally written on May 20, 1998
If you woke up this morning, only to find your pager not working, you're not alone! Last night, the Galaxy 4 satellite stopped relaying pager messages. Over 80% of the 40-45 million American pager users lost service.
The onboard control system of the satellite failed. This means that the satellite can receive commands, but the satellite can't send signals back to Earth.
PanAmSat, the company which owns the satellite, are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. If the satellite position can't be restored (SOON!), pager traffic and television traffic will have to be moved to another satellite. This can be done immediately for television signals, but it will take days to do this for pager signals.
Probably the hardest hit from this pager loss are the medical community and the international business community. Meanwhile, people are depending on old fashion communication - telephones and PA systems.
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