The Lebanon explosions raise a question: Deep into the smartphone era, who is still using pagers?

Associated Press

Electronic pagers that were popular status symbols in the 1990s are used for communication precisely because they are old school. The devices run on batteries and radio waves. That generally makes them impervious to dead zones without WiFi, basements without cell service, hackings and catastrophic network collapses such as those during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Some medical professionals and emergency workers prefer pagers to cell phones or use the devices in combination. They’re handy for workers in remote locations, such as oil rigs and mines. The bloody, simultaneous pager explosions in Lebanon on Tuesday returned the spotlight to the 70-year-old technology.