# Do pagers use satellites or cell towers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pagers-use-satellites-or-cell-towers/46057>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 17, 2000, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pagers-use-satellites-or-cell-towers/46057 "2000-12-17T21:26:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pagers-use-satellites-or-cell-towers/46057/1 "2000-12-17T21:26:41Z")

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I’ve heard that pagers get their signals from satellites. And I remember a few years back how everyone’s pagers went dead when a certain satellite (Galaxy 4) broke. But Skytel, which is a pretty big pager company, has [coverage maps](http://www.skytel.com/products/1maps/coverage.cgi?id=REDESIGN&zone=107) on their website, and make you choose what kind of plan you want to use (regional/national/etc.) This seems very similar to cell-phone plans, which don’t use satellites. Plus the standard pager doesn’t seem like it has the antenna size needed for satellite reception. So anyone have any more detail on these things?

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**Author:** ![melchizedek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@melchizedek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melchizedek)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pagers-use-satellites-or-cell-towers/46057/2 "2000-12-17T21:35:01Z")

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Yes, they use Cell Towers. However, I can’t remember an instance when they haven’t been able to pick up a signal in the same way cell phones fall into ‘black spots’, but I guess as they only wait for a text type message to come in, as soon as they are in a signal area, the message comes through.

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**Author:** ![ScoobyTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@ScoobyTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScoobyTX)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pagers-use-satellites-or-cell-towers/46057/3 "2000-12-17T22:37:07Z")

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Some pagers use both.

Pagers with nationwide coverage relay messages through satellites. The actual signal to the pager go through ground stations (like cell towers). For local coverage pagers, the signal (usually) stays on land lines to the towers.