My first pager was a used SmartBeep model. To make a long story short, the service was pretty good. When I went to that location to pay a bill, I found the S.F. store, where I purchased it, moved to Oakland. Fortunately, I worked in nearby Emeryville, so it wasn't a problem. Then, I lost the pager, and needed to replace it. I went to the Oakland store. It was closed. The nearest location was in San Jose. I drove all the way to San Jose to find that the SmartBeep "store" was actually a check-cashing center, and they offered the service with a limited pager selection.
I saw the signs, and knew that even with the great price of roughly $4 a month, I would eventually be left high and dry by SmartBeep. I bit the bullet and got a cell phone.
Compared to several years ago when a local in-store reseller had given me a two year contract in exchange for my two year full payment, then cut and run a month later, I was happy to continue paying Smart Beep, which seemed to be a strong and very reliable company. Smart Beep owned their own frequencies/signals and equipment.