Wondering if a GSM pager/beeper exists & is on the market
 

Does anyone know if a such thing as a pager-style device exists that instead of proprietary or non-working old pager networks, it uses standard SMS messages over the GSM network? I was thinking besides obvious stuff like simple QWERTY GSM phones, though I guess the closest thing to such a device would be something like the Motorola V101 or A009 which had voice support but was mainly designed for just SMS.

Since there's no one-way paging mode on GSM networks and so you nee all components that a phone has (except for the very cheap speaker and microphone), it doesn't really make sense to produce a phone, that is a nickel cheaper but unable of calling (and so placing emergency calls).

A long time ago I read/saw something about special low-cost GSM "phones" that only had SMS capability. These were developed for deaf people in developing countries. However, any potential savings were probably very short-lived due to the eventual lower unit cost of mass manufactured 'normal' handsets.

I don't know, but there are some not exactly phone devices about, using only sms, such as alarm systems

I have something that is close to that..a Peek9 non-voice GSM device that works on T-Mobile USA. Peek 9. Connect everyone, everywhere. Simple GPRS device with no microphone but has a keyboard, a small color display and a clickable scroll wheel. Will accept up to 5 email addresses (I just use 2 slots for Google and Yahoo) and will convert emails to flat text and receive some simple picture attachments. Also can do Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds, but haven't done any of those. Also has a system triangulation map service (but no GPS chip; this is a pretty basic device). Can send SMS's easily to US mobile phone devices and can receive SMS's if someone replies to an SMS you send (apparently it doesn't have a fixed SMS receive address). Have a device with an unlimited service plan...no monthly fee as long as the device (or the company) survives. They have a US version (what I'm using), a European version through Spotnik Switzerland (many reports of service and customer service problems with that version so I'd steer clear of it until their reliability maybe improves), and a version for India sold through Aircel.

The US Peek service had a major service hiccup a couple of months ago with a M2M provider that went under so they had to swap old Peek devices for new ones and switch accounts over. I lost service for a couple of weeks or so while that happened but am now back on the air.

It's a niche device but I hope they do well with it.

Same question in 2015!

@ international.

Best option in 2015 would be, if you look on certain platforms such as ebay if you find a cheap Blackberry q5 (maybe q10) or some dated qwerty moibles like the nokia e71, e72 or e6.

Specially the Blackberry q5 was on sale last year in UK as a payg device for GBP 99.00 and is a decent peace of messenger centric phone for all sort of SMS, email, texting, social networking. (http://crackberry.com/blackberry-q5-review)

Positive side effect is, that you will have all possible messenger and voip solutions with you when travelling (through wifi), not only messaging.

BK

It can be done with a simple mobile and whatsapp application

You are totally right!