Quix
Quix was a pager service operated in Germany from 1995 to 2000 .
history
The service started in 1995 , operated by MINIRUF GmbH from Hanover . Founding shareholders were Vebacom (40 percent), RWE Telliance (40 percent, later merged to o.tel.o ), and Tele Danmark (20 percent). In 1998 the service was about to end and the service was scheduled to be discontinued at the end of the year. However, a buyer was found, Hörmann GmbH, a specialist provider of paging services in the rescue service. MINIRUF GmbH was taken over while retaining its name. At that time, Hörmann was involved in the competitor "TeLMI / DFR" and wanted to combine the activities of TeLMI , Quix and T-Mobil / Qbic in one company. However, these plans fail because of the no of the shareholders and the supervisory authority.
Quix became unattractive with the proliferation of cell phones in the late 1990s. Mobile telephony brought with it a reliable short message service (SMS), while with Quix there was always the risk of losing messages if the pager was in a dead zone or switched off when the message was broadcast, for example if the battery was empty. This systematic disadvantage was exacerbated by the comparatively high Quix fees for connection and sending messages (1996: basic fees between 19.90 DM and 39.90 DM). In July 2000, all participants were informed by post of the final termination of the service at the end of the year. In mid-December 2000, users received a text message that the service had been discontinued and that the Quix pager would not receive any more messages within 14 days.
Two competitors remained on the market, Deutsche Funkruf GmbH and eMessage . Deutsche Funkruf GmbH, however, also discontinued its "TeLMI" service about a year later, on January 3, 2002, as it had gone bankrupt. Only eMessage remained on the market with its Scall , Skyper and Cityruf services .
Technical details
The network was divided into five different "Quix regions" in which the messages were sent. Zones 2, 3, 4/5, 6/7, 8/9 were available, whereby the zones corresponded to the second digit of the area code , e.g. B. Donauwörth (0 9 06) was in zone 8/9 . Nationwide reception could be booked for a fee (April 1997: 9.90 DM / month).
The information service dpa -News could be received free of charge with the receivers Quix News 1 to News 4 . Quix News 5 also received sports information ; Quix Ultra also sports information , stock market information and weather forecasts. The BRAVO Quix, which was primarily intended for young people, was able to receive the so-called "BRAVO-News", e.g. B. News about CDs, etc.
Quix could be reached under the area code 0165 . The following number decided on the desired service.
| 0165-1-Quix-number-1 | Ringer 1 |
| 0165-1-Quix-number-2 | Ringer 2 |
| 0165-3 Quix number | Text messages (discounted if the "partner package" was booked) |
| 0165-4 Quix number | Number messages / voice messages |
| 0165-6 Quix number | Text messages (up to 120 characters through a telephone operator ) |
The "Quix Service Menu" could be reached under 0165-5 Quix number, under which one could listen to the voice messages and change the Quix region.
Messages could also be transmitted by fax , modem , T-Online ( BTX ) and, as a test, the Internet . However, the sender of the message always had to pay . The software for the transmission was developed by Fetsch Informatik GmbH from Eberbach / Neckar in the mid-1990s.
The POCSAG protocol was used and broadcast on 448.475 MHz.
Individual evidence
- ^ Teltarif.de message from September 9, 1998
- ↑ teltarif.de message from November 9, 1998
- ↑ teltarif.de message from July 24, 2000
- ↑ teltarif.de message from January 3, 2002