Restaurants page waiting guests on their cellphones

Providing a new solution to an old problem, ReadyPing lets restaurants notify guests by text message when their table is ready. The system aims to improve on restaurant pagers, which require a substantial upfront investment plus maintenance costs, and have a limited range. Restaurants don’t need to purchase new hardware to use ReadyPing; all that’s required is an internet connection and a computer. ReadyPing charges a flat monthly fee of USD 35, which includes sending an unlimited number of ‘pings’. To use the system, hosts enter a party’s name, number of guests, and their mobile number. When their table is available, the host clicks a button to send a customizable text message. Launched in January 2009, ReadyPing is currently only available in the United States, but it definitely has potential in other time-strapped parts of the world. Of course, there’s no reason why similar systems couldn’t be used by other types of businesses. One to brainstorm on? (Related: Subway launches food ordering via SMS.) Spotted by: Judy McRae