This Motorola pager was an iconic telecommunication device in Singapore during the 1980s and early 1990s. Before mobile phones and smartphones, the pager was a key communication device for Singaporeans to keep in touch then. To page for someone, one would dial the pager number, press the asterisk key twice and hang up. The number of the telephone that was used to page for the person would then appear on the pager, which the owner used to return the call. This pager model predated the later ones that allowed for alpha-numeric paging, a technology that gave users the opportunity to send messages via codes by dialing the right keys on a telephone, which would be transmitted and appear as messages on the screen of the pager. The logo for Singapore Telecom, predecessor to Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) today, is seen on the pager. It was originally known as Telecoms, formed after the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) merged with the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore in 1974. As the only telecommunications company in Singapore throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the iconic logo of Telecoms/Singapore Telecom was found on most telecommunications equipment in Singapore, including public payphones, home telephones and pagers.
