Japan : Pagers lifespan to come to an end

Tokyo – Pagers are set to be finally phased out of use in Japan. The last remaining carrier says it will be stopping its service at the end of next September.

Pagers have been in use in Japan for 50 years. Subscriptions peaked in 1996 at more than 10 million.

But they became things of the past with the arrival of mobiles and later smartphones.

Tokyo Telemessage is the only pager service provider left in Japan. The company has about 1,500 customers in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures. Many are medical workers.

The company says it plans to use the pager frequency band to strengthen its disaster radio services for local authorities. (NHK)