In recent years, many Canadian physicians have switched to cellular phones. This is understandable, given the freedom and convenience they provide for physicians who are on the road or on call. As with pagers, large price cuts have made cellular phone service very affordable. Choosing the most economical plan requires a careful assessment of your needs. If you feel that you can benefit from such extra-cost features as call waiting, call forwarding and voice mail, try to purchase them in a package that is priced less expensively than each individual service alone.
Cellular phones are more convenient than pagers, but they can also be more intrusive.
For this reason, many physicians prefer to keep their pager and use their cellular phone only to return calls. You can forgo using the pager and still control the cost and intrusiveness of the cellular by subscribing to voice mail, but this will force you to place two return calls, one to retrieve the message and the second to the actual caller. Once you've settled on how you'll use the cellular phone, you can decide which phone to buy. Like all modern technology, smaller means more expensive. For any given size, cost will increase with lighter and more powerful batteries, rapid recharging, vibrating pagers as well as audible ring and increased memory.