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They're common in the US too in doctors offices and hospitals because of the security requirements of transmitting patient records and such.

After first contact

A: These are our mini neutron star fusion reactors. The most advanced technology to have ever existed. We basically take a chunk of neutron star matter and divide it into two. We neutralize the negative effect and extreme gravity with our space-time bending gravity manipulation technology. We let the two mini neutro spheres accelerate and collide. This generates enough energy to power atleast 3 planets for 1000 cycles. Not onl--

H: Wait a minute. I have a question.

A: Please feel free to ask any questions.

H: How do you convert the raw energy generated into a usable form at that scale?

A: We use utlra high intensity lasers for energy transfer to plane--

H: No. That's not what I'm asking. How do you convert the raw energy at reactor into a usable form?

A: ...

H: ...

A: We boil water wi--

H: Motherf-- enrages and loses sanity

Stolen from reddit.

We made steampunk a reality by developing the technology to transfer steam power efficiently over long distances through metal wires.

So does pretty much the whole banking and credit industry. When you get money out of an ATM there's usually some COBOL code involved.

That's not even a government thing. It's a finance/banking thing, as most major banks are still using mainframes and legacy COBOL code for most of their business logic.

It's considered a secure method of document transfer over email, despite email being able to be secured and fax can be hacked with like a length of wire and a knife. Fucking irks me.

Back to the Future lied to me again!

To be fair I have infinity more confidence in the system you just described than whatever tech bro disruptor was going to pitch

Hospitals use pagers because the frequency band they run on is better at penetrating walls. Shorter waves carry more data, but are easily blocked by walls. Pagers don’t need a lot of data, so they use really long waves.

And hospitals are built like bunkers, to avoid the potential need to evacuate patients during an emergency. Things like fire breaks between individual rooms, earthquake protections, being strong enough to stand up during a hurricane, etc… The goal is to be able to shelter in place instead of evacuating, because a mass evacuation of bedridden patients who all need monitoring equipment would be a logistical nightmare.

But this also means hospitals are really good at blocking wireless signals, because the walls are all super thick and sturdy. So they use pagers, which use long waves and can reliably penetrate the bunker-like walls. You don’t want a doctor to miss an emergency call because they were sitting in the basement; Hospitals need a wireless connection that reliably works every time. And pagers just happen to fit that specific niche.