DALLAS-Paging Network Inc. said it will procure products from Motorola Inc.’s Paging Products Group to test its VoiceNow technology next year in three cities-Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and New York City.
Under the contract, valued at more than $250 million, PageNet will have a first right to domestic marketing and testing of VoiceNow, a voice pager capable of capturing, storing and replaying the human voice using digital technology.
Motorola and Glenayre Technologies Inc. will supply the infrastructure and equipment for VoiceNow.
Varying criteria was used in selecting the three VoiceNow test cities. San Francisco was chosen for its hilly terrain and New York for high building density, each of which pose challenges to wireless transmission systems, PageNet said. Dallas-Fort Worth is PageNet’s home and headquarters for Motorola’s infrastructure group.
The infrastructure equipment includes a two-way registration capability whereby PageNet transmits a short digital signal to a VoiceNow pager which, upon acknowledging the signal, receives the complete voice message sent from the nearest transmitter.
VoiceNow will use an initial 2,500 transmitter/receiver stations nationwide and operate on the 900 MHz narrowband personal communication service channels. One channel will serve major population centers and two additional channels will be used in selected areas.