SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Pager Can Receive Message Without Operator, Firm Says

A small Irvine company says it has developed a technology for the paging industry that allows someone to send word messages without the assistance of a telephone operator.

Synerdata said its “alpha touch” technology is the first product that allows pager users to send such messages directly by using a push-button phone. Previously, if someone wanted to send a pager message that included letters instead of numbers--for example, “Phone home, Bob”--they had to relay the message to an operator, who typed it into a computer keyboard and then sent it to the correct pager.

The main advantage of the product, Synerdata says, is that it cuts the high costs of paging by eliminating the operators.

Synerdata President Leo Jednyak said the heart of the product is computer software that allows the pager to distinguish between numbers and letters punched into a push-button phone. After the message is punched in, the computer reads the message back to the sender for confirmation.

Synerdata is a division of CUE Paging Corp. of Irvine, one of the nation’s largest paging companies.