The Hindu Business Line : Missing you

People no longer make calls to one another, he said. Only missed calls. The missing person then calls back, for free, from any one of the plentifully available IIT phones.

Unfortunately, someone went and let mobile operators into the secret. Vodafone charged me for unanswered rings on a call I made in an effort to reach (rather than miss) an Airtel subscriber at Kharagpur, at the rate applicable for regular calls!

Apparently, some smart alecks at Vodafone have been able to persuade SMS advertisers (in this case an astrological-cum-marital advisor) that they can get better value for their money by ‘sponsoring’ instantaneous SMS alerts to callers on how much their latest missed or unmissed call cost them, and on how much money they had left.

I got no such message when I, once again unsuccessfully, called a BSNL landline at Kharagpur, though it is quite possible that Vodafone charged me for this ‘call’ as well. When I finally did get through to my friend later in the evening she told me that she had just got charged Rs 19 for a ten minute incoming call from her publisher at Delhi, thanks to a ‘keep me informed’ arrangement she has with Airtel.

Though I myself got information on my call-charges for free, it is possible that those smart alecks at Vodafone, simultaneously, hope to rope me into a scheme that will keep me automatically and regularly informed about how much I pay for calls that I make, or do not make.