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Rescue on Arapiles - Melbourne Cup Weekend 10-Nov-2009 At 12:20:49 PM racingtadpole

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I may be able to assist with the pager thing. The reason they are still in use is two fold. Firstly the technology is as close to bullet-proof as one can hope for, and secondly its a matter of economics.
All paging systems used by emergency services in Australia are terrestrial based (I have been involved in construction of said systems in SA, Vic, and WA, all of which are less than 8 years old and were very much state of the art when installed). Paging transmitters are usually very high RF output power in the middle of the VHF area of the spectrum. This coupled with how the message is transmitted makes them nigh on bullet proof. With advances in manufacturing technology has come a dramatic reduction in cost of paging units (and most electronics in general), infact they can be had for around $30-$50 these days, with no ongoing network access fees (the state governments of SA, Vic and WA own the network that the Emergency Services pagers are attached to). If you compare this to the initial and ongoing cost of mobile phones, there is NO comparison, particularly when you start looking at how many ES volunteers have been issued pagers.
Hope that helps clarify why we still use stuff that seems on the surface yesterdays technology.