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 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. |