UK Operator PageOne Communications scooped EPPA's 1999 prize for "Most Innovative Paging Application". The Award was announced for its NHS NetPAGE service on March 1st at the Association's annual congress in Cannes.

PageOne launched NHS NetPAGE to the UK's National Health Service (NHS) in September 1998. The service uses SNPP (Simple Network Paging Protocol), an Internet paging protocol, to deliver paging messages via the NHS Intranet called NHSnet.

Two months after the launch, numerous UK hospitals had already indicated an interest in NetPAGE and an unknown number of existing PageOne subscribers had also downloaded the software.

The UK operator reports that traffic is excellent: staff at St George's Hospital in London, for example, send 7,125 pages per month over the service. PageOne says that since the launch of Net-PAGE, its business in the health sector has increased by 10% over the past six months.

Hospitals cut costs

By using NHSnet to deliver paging messages, hospitals avoid telephone charges and can send their e-mail messages "free of charge", based on fixed link connections to NHSnet. PageOne estimates that this should save individual hospitals at least £3,500 each year (the calculation is based on an average hospital with 250 pagers, paged twice a day).

NetPAGE users can download software free of charge from NHSnet. This allows them to contact pagers nationwide, directly from their desktops, ensuring confidentiality, speedy message delivery and no call charges. An additional benefit of NetPAGE is that it allows NHS Trusts with connection to NHSnet to integrate on-site and wide-area paging. It can be tailored according to the needs and infrastructure of each NHS Trust

NetPAGE also allows hospitals with connection to NHSnet to integrate on-site and wide-area paging. PageOne Communications Marketing Manager, Simon Holmes, noted that "as a policy, PageOne is seeking to integrate paging technology with customers existing computer networks."