Intro

I got my first pager around 1996, when I was about 12. Back then, banks gave away small presents when you opened an account with them. I've always been into gadgets and toys, and I proceeded to haggle my parents until they allowed me to open an account. There weren't any monthly costs for these pagers, you'd received a pager with a special '0660-' number, and the caller would pay a substantial amount of money to page you. I don't recall the exact price, but it would be in the vicinty of a few euro's in todays money. The pager itself probably wasn't that expensive, so I guess it was a pretty good way to attract young customers. People don't switch banks all that often, so I guess some people are still stuck with the same bank because of that pager.

Until I bought my first mobile phone, I carried the little yellow device with me everywhere. I used it as a watch, alarmclock, and to some extend a flashlight. I got few pages, sure, but they were mostly my mom. The cost was just a little too high, and really, there weren't a whole lot of people that I needed to be instantaneously reachable for at age 12. Still, I liked it.

2 years later I got my first mobile phone, and my yellow Philips Maxer disappeared in a box.