Japan's last pager provider has announced it will end its service in September 2019 - bringing a national end to telecommunication beepers, 50 years after their introduction.
日本最后一家寻呼机服务营业商宣布，将于2019年9月结束服务，标志着日本寻呼业长达50年的历史正式落幕。
Around 1,500 users remain subscribed to Tokyo Telemessage, which has not made the devices in 20 years.
目前大约还有1500名用户使用东京电信通信公司提供的寻呼服务，该公司在20年前就已停止生产寻呼机。
Hospital workers favor them as they do not emit electromagnetic waves, the?Japan Times?reports.
据《日本时报》报道，医护人员喜爱使用寻呼机，因为不会产生电磁波。
The once-popular devices are able to receive and show wireless messages.
寻呼机曾经非常流行，可以接收和显示无线信息。
Users would then find a phone to call the sender back.
使用者在收到信息后，可以给发送者回电话。
Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, they grew in popularity in the 1980s. By 1996, Tokyo Telemessage had 1.2 million subscribers.
寻呼机始于上世纪50到60年代，在80年代流行起来。截至1996年，东京电信通信公司曾有120万寻呼业务用户。
A 2017 report estimated that the NHS uses roughly 130,000 pagers - one tenth of those left in the world - at a cost of ?6.6m, as well as thousands of fax machines.
2017年的一份报告估计，英国国民保健体系大概还在使用13万部寻呼机，成本为660万英镑（约合5744万元人民币），占到全球寻呼机使用量的十分之一。另外该系统还在使用数千部传真机。
Vodafone announced it would end its pager service last year, leaving PageOne as the only operator of a network remaining in the UK.
英国电信企业沃达丰在去年宣布终止寻呼业务，PageOne成为英国仅存的唯一一家寻呼业务提供商。
Japan also continues to use fax machines, despite its technological reputation.
尽管日本以科技先进闻名，但还在使用传真机。
本文来源：中国日报网
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