In the next few months, however, Motorola's new, pared-down but much cheaper unit, the T900, will start showing up around town. Whether this really takes off with the consumer will be anyone's guess. Ram Paging Hawaii, part of the national Arch Communications network, received its first PageWriter units a few weeks ago. The Advertiser borrowed one for a day to try out. Long messages become a burden.
Coverage is another consideration.
The buzz on two-way paging in Internet newsgroups has been that people cling to their pagers because pager networks offer better coverage, nationwide, than wireless phone services. However, the local situation may vary. Ram Paging's coverage, in our test, dropped off on the Windward side of the island. PageNet's own transmitters will come online along with those already owned by Ram Paging, which also plans to install more, Ditucci said. In hardware selection, Motorola remains the paging industry leader but has some competition.