Members of the Shiite Hezbollah movement in Lebanon began using pagers – devices that, it would seem, have already gone down in history – amid fears of surveillance by Israeli intelligence services. These devices are almost impossible to track, while they allow you to exchange brief messages and keep in touch within a structure with a rigid hierarchy.
On September 17, many pagers detonated almost simultaneously in different parts of Lebanon, as a result of which, according to the latest official data, 12 people were killed, including two children, and another 2.8 thousand people were injured. Hezbollah accused Israel of organizing the bombings. A discussion broke out at the expert level about exactly how these explosions could have been carried out.
According to Edward Snowden, an ex-employee of the American special services, the mass detonation of Hezbollah's pagers and other means of communication in Lebanon occurred, most likely, because of the explosives installed in them. He believes that the fault for what happened is not overheated batteries, as other experts believe.
While there are different versions, we will tell you more about the iconic gadget of the 1990s, about its technical characteristics, as well as why Hezbollah abandoned mobile devices in favor of pagers.
How do pagers work?
Pagers, once a symbol of prestige and technology, now look like archaic devices. However, they hide an effective technology behind their simplicity.
Unlike modern smartphones, a pager cannot send messages. Its main function is to receive text messages that are transmitted over a radio channel at a certain frequency. Each pager is configured to receive signals at this frequency.
In addition, each pager has a unique code similar to a phone number. When a message is sent to a paging station, it contains this code. If the code in the message matches the pager code, the device receives the message and emits a beep or vibration.
Frequency manipulation (FSK) is used to encode information into a radio signal. This means that the data is encoded by changing the frequency of the carrier signal. The data transfer rate in pagers is relatively low, which allows you to use simple and reliable schemes. Messages are transmitted in clear text, without any protection. However, only one specific device can decrypt the transmitted message.
Pagers have a very simple design and do not require complex maintenance. The working time is long, one battery is enough for several months. In addition, these devices are compact and lightweight.
The grandfather of modern smartphones: the principle of the pager
Pagers were at the peak of popularity in the 1990s. As of 1994, there were 61 million such devices in the world. They were used by people in almost all countries. At that time, the process of sending a message was not as simple as it is now.
First, you had to call the company that provides paging services. The operator was dictated the pager number and the text of the message, after which the operator transmitted the information to the base station, which, in turn, sent a signal to all pagers on the network. The device, tuned to a certain frequency, recognized its unique number, received a signal and displayed a message on the screen.
At that time, pagers were popular among businessmen who needed to be always in touch. They were also used in hospitals for operational communication with doctors and nurses. Rescuers, firefighters and police officers used pagers to coordinate actions.
Why are pagers outdated
The advent of two-way mobile phones has made pagers, which can only receive text messages, uncompetitive. Modern smartphones offer much broader functionality. Pagers do not allow you to send reply messages, which significantly limits the possibilities of using them.
What happened to pagers in Russia?
Paging providers are still available abroad in many countries, but in our country the era of these devices finally ended in June 2023, when the last valid license to provide personal radio call services expired. Then the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation officially announced the termination of licensing of this service.
In addition to technical obsolescence, the Ministry of Finance has put forward another reason for banning paging: the possibility of using this technology for illegal purposes. Although no specific examples were given, it is assumed that pagers could be used to coordinate illegal activities.
For ordinary users, the shutdown of paging networks has not become a problem, since the technology has not been used in everyday life for a long time, with rare exceptions.
In which areas do pagers still continue to be used
Despite the fact that the era of pagers in most countries has come to an end, these devices continue to find application in some areas that have their own specifics:
1) Medicine
In medical institutions, pagers are often used to call medical personnel. Their advantages are obvious: speed, reliability and absence of interference. This is especially important in emergency situations, when every second counts.
In ambulance crews, pagers can be used for operational communication between employees or to call additional resources.
2) Emergency services
In case of fire or other emergency situations, mobile communications may be overloaded or unavailable. Pagers provide reliable communication in such conditions.
In large industrial enterprises, especially in remote areas, pagers can be used to call emergency crews or to establish communication between employees.
3) Organization of mass events
At large events, pagers allow you to quickly contact security personnel, medical services or other responsible persons. And conference delegates can be equipped with pagers to receive urgent messages or notifications about changes in the program.
4) Pagers can be used to communicate with workers in mines and other underground structures.
5) Suitable for sending emergency alerts, for example, about an impending natural disaster or an existing threat to public safety.
How and why did Hezbollah use pagers
Communication via pagers, as the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote, is ideal for the control system that this movement has built.
There is no transmitter in these devices that can be used to track the owner. And this is the main difference from any, even the most primitive push-button mobile phone, which automatically registers in the corresponding section of the network and signals the location of its owner.
A pager is essentially a walkie-talkie that receives text rather than a voice signal. It does not have any sophisticated software, internet connection, antennas or wi-fi that could be used as a loophole for remote connection to the device. You cannot upload a malicious PC to the pager or reassign the device to yourself. This corresponds to the goals and objectives of maximum secrecy, which was used by representatives of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a structure with a rigid hierarchy in which superiors give orders to subordinates. Therefore, the lack of feedback from most pagers is not an obstacle for representatives of this movement: there is no need for feedback from the lower-level.
According to Reuters, Hezbollah has only recently started using pagers, fearing that mobile phones are easy to hack. It is clarified that suspicions of surveillance by Israel arose among representatives of the movement only at the end of last year. According to the agency, when senior Hezbollah leaders stopped using their phones, there were "interruptions." After that, the group found a workaround: it was decided to use pagers as a low-tech means of communication to avoid surveillance.
Pagers allowed Hezbollah members to exchange messages up to a hundred characters long. In addition, the battery life of the device they chose was up to 85 days, which, according to The Daily Mail, became one of the decisive factors, because in Lebanon there have been power outages in recent years. The devices were used by members of various units of the movement – from the military to medics.
Olga Nikitina
