Lebanon Explosions: What are pagers and why do Hezbollah members still use them?

Representational pic (AFP)

Just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks to include its fight against the Palestinian militant group's ally Hezbollah along the country's border with Lebanon, thousands of pager blasts ripped through Lebonon killing 9 and wounding atleast 3000 on Tuesday.

Following the deadly blasts, Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah vowed to punish Israel for a deadly attack and said that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression". However, Israel is yet to comment on the attacks.

The deadly pager explosions in Lebanon has brought these early communication devices in limelight.

Let's understand what is a pager and why members of militant outfit Hezbollah still use it.

Hezbollah members hugely rely on pagers--that were once a rage in late 1980s and 1990s across the globe as a device to send messages. Alfred Gross invented the compact device and in 1949, the first pager was patented in the US. In 1959, the term "pager" was officially registered by Motorola.

What is a pager?

A pager is a compact battery-powered radio receiver that alerts the user through a beep or vibration when it receives a signal. Also known as a beeper, a pager works differently than a smartphones. While a smartphone cam receive phone calls and longer readable messages, a pager receives numeric or alphanumeric messages, such as a phone number, or a short text message, like “Call Home.”

The pagers were quite famous during the 1990s as communication tool for professionals, especially like doctors, journalists, technicians. However, eventually the small device vanished from the market after affordable mobile phones came into existence.

Pagers come in two main types: one-way pagers, which can only receive messages, and two-way pagers, which allow users to both send and receive messages.

Pagers are still used in areas where cell networks may be unreliable or compromised, as they help protect the privacy of communications.

Why Hezbollah members still use pagers?

Unlike smartphones, it is easier to evade location tracking with a pager. The Hezbollah fighters apparently have been using pagers to evade Israeli location-tracking.

Pagers operate on their own dedicated frequency, making them more reliable as they bypass mobile telephone networks, which are prone to frequent interruptions, connection issues, or potential interception.

The blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".