Arun 795 Report post Posted March 16, 2006 Indians: Kings of the art of missed calls ! Rediff.com | March 16, 2006 11:26 IST French turn off their mobiles during meals, Chinese call and hang up after few seconds, while Spanish are reluctant to use voicemail. But when it comes to Indians, it is the missed call they are most (in)famous for. The Indian mobile user seems to have mastered the art of 'missed calls' -- and actually to communicate without answering the calls! While cellphone operators are reluctant to give the exact share of missed calls, according to industry estimates, it is somewhere around 20-25 per cent. Writes Nick Gray in a moblog (mobile blog) -- in India 'missed calls' were very popular, as a way to say "I'm thinking about you" or "call me back." I would often hear someone say, "I'll send you a missed call when we get there -- see you soon." "Even though cellular tariffs are pretty low, people were ingeniously using 'missed calls' for signalling and saving money. The call rates are already low but most users want to make it lower by resorting to missed calls," says V Kumar, a cellphone user, who on an average gets around 10-15 missed calls every day. "It's very irksome to call back someone every half an hour for no work of yours," says Kumar, noting the problem is more in case of office goers as callers think the office is going to pay for call back." However, Kobita Desai, principal telecom analyst, Gartner, says: "Users tend to resort to giving missed calls when the message to be conveyed is just to make an announcement of one's presence or somewhat on those lines." "But there is a natural progression towards wanting to communicate more than just merely indicating one's arrival. That is driven by a real need to communicate and getting habituated to using a medium to do so this is not going to be a major issue in future," says Desai in an e-mail interview. "There is also a situation when the other person has to call back. No doubt mobile tariffs are quite low and the price differential with fixed is very narrow. However that is not necessarily the case with prepaid tariffs that are still significantly higher and also the pulse rate is shorter. Mobile calls are billed at 60 seconds whereas fixed calls are billed at 180 seconds." "There's still a perception that mobile rates are high and understandably so. With almost 75 per cent of subscribers being prepaid, the impact could be quite significant unless the price differentials narrow down significantly. Also a prepaid user has better visibility of his usage since he has a credit limit dependent on what he has already paid for," says Desai. But when it comes to 'who loses and who gains on missed calls,' Desai says: "It would depend on where the call originates from. If more calls originate from the fixed network then the lion's share of the call revenue is retained by fixed network operator. However, they would have to give a percentage to the mobile network as an interconnect or termination cost. Or vice versa. Often missed calls happen within mobile networks as well. Here there is loss of revenue on both sides, especially if the called party has caller line identification." "Missed calls have to originate from some network. So there's always percentage given as interconnect/termination to the network on which the calls terminate. However good interconnect rates are dependent on the volume of traffic generated. In a non-monopoly environment like India's mobile industry, it becomes difficult for a carrier to arbitrage on good interconnect rates if they only invite incoming traffic," she says. "Further not getting threshold revenue (cost of servicing + margins) from their home subscribers may affect business sustainability in the mid to long term," notes Desai. But for the customer, it's all about money in this case. Who needs etiquette when it costs you money! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted March 16, 2006 well me too is a shikaar of this...my friends just give amiss call and then i had to call back i dunno know why do ppl keep mobiles when they cant call...then what is mobile phone for , just to show off they they are good for nothing..........shameless ppl....... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted March 16, 2006 @arun & @akshat I agree with both of you guys. I think they keep mobiles with them only to show off. After the lifetime service had started, much more people started giving miss calls. This is rediculous. They must think before giving a miss call. I never call back when someone gives me missed call. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ramchi 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2006 Many people effectively use missed calls. Most of the times these missed calls are done with purpose and it is acknowleged positively by the other side. I do not agree that Indian Call rates are the cheapest in the world and all. In US you can use your mobile phones @ $50 Per Month with which you can call 3000 any time minutes, night & weekends are free [incoming and outgoing] plus free incoming. For an average American[which is close to $40K] $50 per month is about 1/70 - 1/80 of their monthly disposable income. I do not see such plans exist in India except may for Reliance-Reliance, Tata-Tata local etc... In US providers serve almost 10 times the volume than Indian providers. They are able to generate profit, satisfy customer and technologically superior. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Arun 795 Report post Posted February 4, 2007 Missed Call Virus Bugs Telecom Firms February 03, 2007 02:15 IST Business Standard Telecom czar Sunil Mittal has a hectic schedule chock-a-block with meetings every day. That is why T V Ramachandran, who heads the Cellular Operators' Association of India -- the apex body of GSM technology service providers -- sends him a missed call if he has something urgent to discuss, rather than disturbing him. Mittal calls back when he is free. It's a code both understand well. Ironically, for Mittal's Bharti Airtel and the other eight major mobile operators in India, missed calls are becoming a growing headache. Despite call rates being as low as Re 1 or less, ballpark industry figures show that over 30 per cent of all mobile calls are missed calls. They are deliberately made to convey a pre-agreed message or are calls that go unanswered. A study by Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies (Lirne), a Denmark-based NGO that focusses on telecom issues, shows that over half of India's 140 million mobile subscribers make missed calls to convey a pre-agreed message. As many as 95 per cent of the pre-paid customers used missed calls for this purpose, the study added. For operators, missed calls clog networks without earning them revenue, also frustrating genuine callers with "network busy" messages. "Missed calls use microwave links, the backhaul and the exchange and yet we make no money," said a senior executive of Hutchison-Essar. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nirvana 4 Report post Posted February 4, 2007 (edited) Afterall we pay for CLIP these days, so telecom companies cannot claim that we are not paying for it ! I hope they do not end up charging us even for missed calls in the future !!! Edited February 4, 2007 by Nirvana Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted February 4, 2007 (edited) Yes my dear Nirvana, I think we should get ready for this. Telecom firms will definetely try to look deep in this matter and will again start to loot customers. They are telling about missed calls but one should ask them that when calls disconnects automatically due to network problems while we travel across than who is responsible. Nearly everyone face this trouble when we make or receive a call and it get disconnected in between due to lack of network coverage. I think its time for the operators to increase their Cell sites and network capacity instead of digging holes in the customers pockets. Regards. Edited February 4, 2007 by Honest Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Greens 21 Report post Posted February 5, 2007 So, very soon we can expect missed call charges!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GSV13 0 Report post Posted February 5, 2007 Hope they don;t start it like cingular do in us i.e. charging starts if fone is ringing for more than 30 seconds!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
copperco2 24 Report post Posted February 5, 2007 Hope they don;t start it like cingular do in us i.e. charging starts if fone is ringing for more than 30 seconds!!! i dont think so. cause missed call last for less than two rings. This is just the time required for somebody to take his handset out of the confines and answer. but guys dont give them any indication of possibility of charging missed calls. As it is if you are aware earlier Reliance used to charge for the calls which would show the duration of 2seconds.. 5seconds or 10 seconds too. during the early DAPO days.. and the harassed user had to take his case to nearest WW redirected to the regional office to revert these charges. god forbid.. any such thing in the future Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
