Reach Out and Beep Someone

In the days before telephones, bosses worried about letting their workers get out of shouting range. Nowadays they fret about their employees straying beyond beeping distance. Reason: most of the electronic pagers clipped to the belts of some 4 million Americans have a range of only 50 miles or so. But long-distance beeps carried by satellite and microwave are coming soon. Last week the Federal Communications Commission chose three companies that will be allowed to transmit electronic messages anywhere in the U.S. The three are expected to offer the service in at least 15 cities as early as September 1985. The fee for receiving cross-country beeps is expected to be about $8 a month, or twice the local rate.

The FCC chose the three winners from 16 qualified applicants by using the somewhat unorthodox method of a lottery. Agency officials drew names from a plastic drum borrowed from the Selective Service. This set off loud beeps of protest from such applicants as American Express, MCI and Metromedia, which claim they are better equipped to provide the service than the others. But the relatively small firms that won--Radiofone, Pagememo and United Paging--have links to larger companies, including Western Union and Cox Communications.