ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. announced a two-year strategic marketing agreement with Washington Gas, under which the utility will offer Metrocall pagers and services to its customers in the Washington, D.C., area via bill inserts.
Those accepting the offer will get free service for two months, said Metrocall. Metrocall’s Mike Scanlon, senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, said the paging carrier does not plan to provide Washington Gas airtime for wireless meter reading applications, but he did not rule out that possibility for the future. “You establish a relationship, and hopefully it leads to other things,” he said.
SkyTel Communications Inc. has agreements with several utility companies under which SkyTel provides the airtime, helps develop the modems for wireless meter reading and provides customer support applications. For instance, with a two-way wireless meter solution, utility companies can be “paged” with energy consumption data, and also “page” their customers with daily or weekly updates and bills.
At this time, Metrocall has no two-way paging service, but has gained a license for such in its acquisition of AT&T Corp.’s paging unit. Metrocall said it will announce strategic partnerships in the near future regarding its plans for that license.
