The number of people with pagers has hit an all-time low as cheap mobile phones drive beepers close to extinction.
Fewer than 300,000 people now have a pager, well down since 1994 when the popularity of pagers peaked and 1.35 million units were in use.
'It's a global trend. There's been an upsurge in the use of mobiles because as technology allows for a much better device and also lower tariffs, people will think it's much more convenient to use mobiles,' said a spokeswoman for Pacific Century CyberWorks HKT, which no longer even offers a paging service.
'The tariffs for mobiles have gone down quite significantly compared to 10 years ago, and right now the charges for mobiles and pagers are about the same, and sometimes mobiles are cheaper, though you have to pay for the handset, obviously.'
Official figures compiled by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) show that mobile phones overtook pagers as the communications gadget of choice in 1996. More than 5.5 million mobile phones are now being used.
'The main reason is the rapid development of mobile services in recent years, and the charges for mobile phones are getting lower and lower, so the number of users has increased significantly,' an Ofta spokeswoman said.
Mobile phone tariffs have plunged since January 1999, when a system allowing customers to swap networks without changing their phone number was introduced, sparking a fierce price war between the six mobile networks. Monthly mobile fees are now as low as $38 for 100 minutes of talk time, or $388 for unlimited use.
