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I think a separate device isn't necessarily that bizarre. If I'm on call, I wouldn't want to now take every notification on my phone as something critical to check immediately. Just react promptly to a separate notification on a separate device. Now, of course, the company could just buy a separate phone, but I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to get a pager and the battery will last much longer too, making it impossible to "forget to charge" the device.

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This is spot on.

They were cheap vs a phone plan.

They did have long battery life and ran on AAs.

They had clear notifications. Two devices going off? Better check.

Way simpler than ringtones for select users, or the “was that a simultaneous email and text?” game.

Mostly they were cheap. We promised we’d always have redundant providers. I’m sure this seemed like a good idea at the time but didn’t scale well.

They’re no longer in use.

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