Cingular launches enterprise paging service

Cingular today announced a new wireless paging service that incorporates any text-capable device on its network, allowing companies to that rely on older wireless paging technologies for urgent messaging to do away with specialty devices.

The service brings much more than BlackBerry and other push e-mail devices under the press umbrella. According to Cingular, any device with SMS capabilities -- almost the entirety of its customer base -- can be connected to the service, which integrates with existing paging delivery applications currently on the market. The system also uses long message format, allowing customers to receive messages as long as 456 characters, and it supports two-way messaging so a response message can be routed back to a customer's paging system and received by the original sender, an automated notification system or an IT mailbox.

While the service will definitely have a greater reach than traditional paging networks, the traditional paging application users may be reluctant to move their paging systems to a less reliable network. A one-way paging network pulses a message out repeatedly over a high-power signal, while the cellular network often has more coverage limitations and sometimes fails delivery of SMS messages. For companies that rely on paging for emergency communications like hospitals and emergency workers, the benefits of a cellular paging system may not outweigh dependability issues. But as the name of the new service implies, Enterprise Paging, Cingular may not be targeting emergency communications, but the much broader business market, where messaging applications like push e-mail are already gaining heavy traction.

Cingular and AirIQ today also announced they have concluded a data resale agreement, in which AirIQ will use the carrier’s GPRS network for its fleet telematics services.