MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. An attack similar to the one that took place on paging devices in Lebanon is impossible in Russia, because this kind of communication technology has been obsolete in this country for many years, polled experts told TASS.

On September 17, many pagers exploded almost simultaneously in different parts of Lebanon. The Shiite movement Hezbollah blamed the explosions on Israel and promised a "just response." According to one version, the incident was a result of a cyberattack. The pagers were reportedly brought to Lebanon for Hezbollah supporters in the spring of this year with explosive devices already embedded in them.

A member of the State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, Anton Nemkin, said that pagers were practically extinct in Russia today.

"Their popularity peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s, when cell phones and the Internet were not yet widely available. However, with the advent of mobile technologies pagers lost their relevance virtually in no time," he added.

The expert explained that nowadays almost all the functions that pagers once performed have been completely taken over by smartphones, messengers, social networks and e-mail. Pagers might remain relevant only in very narrow professional segments, where it is crucial to receive brief text messages without access to the Internet.

"However, there is no such thing as massive use of pagers in Russia these days. This device is a thing of the past," Nemkin explained.

No explosive components used in pagers

The CEO of the Telecom Daily information and analytical agency, Denis Kuskov, has told TASS that the last paging company in Russia closed down a couple of years ago. It had been used only for special needs.

"Secondly, one should remember that these pagers had been altered on one way or another and not in the process of manufacturing, I think. There is hardly anyone at the factory in Hungary where the pagers were made who would bother to insert some components that tend to explode. Apparently, that was done in the logistic phase. Or, certain components were inserted upon arrival in the country," said Kuskov.

He added that in recent years pagers in Russia were used by less than a thousand people across the country, and it was meaningless to have a provider of such communication services.

"Besides, with the the creation of a cluster of low-orbit satellites this option will go irrelevant. That is, there is no need for it at the moment," he concluded.