To send an Text Message or Alpha page to any of the supported paging systems (Shands, Verizon, Alltel, MetroCall, Valupage, TSR, Arch, Verizon, AirTouch, Sprint, Nextel and a few others) simply send an email to:

pager@communications.shands.ufl.edu

In the subject line type a % (percent sign) followed by the pager/cell phone number. A proper subject line would look something like the following:

(The example uses a statewide alpha, others will also work)

Type the text of your message in the body of the e-mail.

NOTE: Please send your message as PLAIN TEXT, not HTML.
If you received a message like --part1_63.13e18e28.27f52103_boundary Content-Type then the person did not send plain text. Discuss this problem with the sender or consult your e-mail documentation for information on sending plain text.

Note: You may only send to one pager at a time. You cannot list multiple pagers on the subject line.

Using the Communications phone and beeper list and the CHRIS, http://chris.shands.ufl.edu/chris.html, data you can find a person and then select "send alpha page" from their detail record if they have completed the interview and have a alphanumeric pager (with 10 digits for external pagers). There will also be a link to the Web form outside of CHRIS on the Communications Web page.

If you already know the pager number you can go to the Communications Web text messaging gateway at http://communications.shands.ufl.edu/send_page.shtml . The Communications Web page at http://communications.shands.ufl.edu will also have a link to the Communications Web text messaging gateway.

Due to problems with the way AOL provides Web access AOL users must use the e-mail gateway instead of the Web version. We made an attempt to fix this for AOL users but there is no way to talk with anyone technical at AOL. You may try, although I believe it will be useless, to select "Ask the Staff" and ask them how you can visit a Web site using the same IP for a short period of time or how the Web site owner can instruct AOL's proxy servers to provide this feature.

Notes

Alltel does not have a Web based interface to their alpha pagers. The "pagers" on their Web site are probably PCS cell phones, not true pagers. You cannot page your Alltel pager at their Web site.

If you are using Arch or Verizon pagers and would like to use the paging gateway please contact Scott Preston with your pager number. Only a few of the Arch and Verizon pager exchanges are handled at this time.

Unsupported alpha paging systems include the following:

• SkyTel
• BellSouth IPS / Cingular
• WebLink Wireless
• PageNet
• 800, 877, 888 tollfree pagers other than American Messaging and MetroCall

Cell phone text messaging

We support messaging to Nextel and Sprint cell phones in North Florida (around Gainesville and Jacksonville).

Unsupported cell phone providers include all non-Sprint/Nextel providers. Some examples of unsupported cell providers:

• AT&T
• Verizon
• Alltel
• T-Mobile
• Cellular One
• Cricket
• TracFone
• Boost

Costs associated with text messaging

Cell phone service providers have a large number of different plans. Text messaging, also known as internet text messaging or advanced messaging, is frequently not included in the standard service plans. You may need to enable this through your service provider at an additional cost. There may also be per message charges for text messaging (typically around $0.10 each). Most Nextel plans charge $0.10/message received.

Sprint/Nextel offers unlimited 2-way messaging for $5.00/month. If you want to add this to your service please contact the Sprint/Nextel rep.

Warning:

FLEX paging for pagers and pager timing

  FLEX - Paging protocol introduced by Motorola late in 1994 and will be the 
  protocol of choice as paging company upgrade from POCSAG to FLEX in the US. 
  FLEX supports rates of 1600, 3200 and 6400bps and can handle up to 5 billion 
  addresses. FLEX has a 4 frequency signal arranged as evenly  spaced tones 
  with usual shifts (in Hz) of: -4800/-1600/+1600/+4800.  FLEX is a synchronous 
  time slot protocol. The FLEX protocol does not send messages at random but 
  instead sends all paging data destined for a particular pager during a 
  pre-defined time slot.

  The pager only wakes up only when a message is expected to arrive in real time 
  to increase battery life.  FLEX technology organizes the message into frames of 
  data or a specific sized packet containing bits of data. There are a total of 
  128 frames in a FLEX protocol system numbered zero through 127. It takes  
  exactly four minutes to transmit all 128 frames regardless of the FLEX 
  protocol speed. The transmission of all 128 frames is called a FLEX cycle. Since 
  one cycle has a duration of four minutes, 15 cycles  can be transmitted in one hour. 

Questions can be sent to Scott Preston.

Revised: 8/18/09