Now, Use Your Mobile To Bluff Your Boss

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From Todays TOI

NEW DELHI: If you thought cell phones were too intrusive you need to do a rethink.

Thanks to services being offered by cell operators, the gizmos can now help you wriggle out of sticky situations. Idea has launched a service—background tones—which enables you to have honking and traffic sounds in the background when you call your boss to tell him that you are just 10 minutes away from office, while you are still at home.

Idea also offers a library of choices to enable you to choose the background of your choice, which can range from a shop floor, to the neighbourhood market and romantic songs, just in case you intend to convey the message to your girlfriend.

“Unlike in the far east, where it had more of a ‘licence to lie’ kind of a function , we are offering it as an ambience for fun and games while you make a call,’’ says Pradeep Shrivastava, Idea’s vice president (marketing).

While the initial selection is limited to eight background tones, the choices can be altered and volume lowered or increased depending on your mood or urgency.

The flip side is that the facility is only available for outgoing calls and only if you are on the home network, not roaming. If the Idea service is aimed at helping you out before you enter a meeting, Airtel has on offer what it calls an ‘ Excuse Me’ service which can help you wriggle out of a boring conversation.

All you need to do is dial a number and you will get a call back within 30-40 seconds with a pre-recorded voice asking you questions ranging from how are you to when you are going to meet the caller and what are you going to gift him. Airtel’s service comes with an advisory that you save the number as the first number of your phone, preferably AAAA.

These services do not have too much competition at the moment as rival operators are for observing the “cellphone etiquette’’ , but they do not rule out launching such services in future.

But like all good things, the services come to you at a cost. Airtel charges Re 1 every time you decide to say ‘excuse me’, while you have pay Rs 3 for every call on an Idea phone with the background tones.

In addition, you have to shell out Rs 15 a month to activate the service and pay Rs 10 for every download from the Idea library.

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