Phone credit low? Go Beeping
Too_Many_Tools
almost no money.
TMT
Phone credit low? Africans go for "beeping" By Andrew Heavens
Wed Sep 26, 11:32 AM ET
If you are in Sudan it is a 'missed call'. In Ethiopia it is a
'miskin' or a 'pitiful' call. In other parts of Africa it is a case of
'flashing', 'beeping' or in French-speaking areas 'bipage'.
Wherever you are, it is one of the fastest-growing phenomena in the
continent's booming mobile telephone markets -- and it's a headache
for mobile operators who are trying to figure out how to make some
money out of it.
You beep someone when you call them up on their mobile phone --
setting its display screen briefly flashing -- then hang up half a
second later, before they have had a chance to answer. Your friend --
you hope -- sees your name and number on their list of 'Missed Calls'
and calls you back at his or her expense.
It is a tactic born out of ingenuity and necessity, say analysts who
have tracked an explosion in miskin calls by cash-strapped cellphone
users from Cape Town to Cairo.
"Its roots are as a strategy to save money," said Jonathan Donner, an
India-based researcher for Microsoft who is due to publish a paper on
"The Rules of Beeping" in the high-brow online Journal of Computer
Mediated Communication in October.
Donner first came across beeping in Rwanda, then tracked it across the
continent and beyond, to south and southeast Asia. Studies quoted in
his paper estimate between 20 to more than 30 percent of the calls
made in Africa are just split-second flashes -- empty appeals across
the cellular network.
The beeping boom is being driven by a sharp rise in mobile phone use
across the continent.
Africa had an estimated 192.5 million mobile phone users in 2006, up
from just 25.3 million in 2001, according to figures from the U.N.'s
International Telecommunication Union. Customers may have enough money
for the one-off purchase of a handset, but very little ready cash to
spend on phone cards for the prepaid accounts that dominate the
market.
Africa's mobile phone companies say the practice has become so
widespread they have had to step in to prevent their circuits being
swamped by second-long calls.
"We have about 355 million calls across the whole network every day,"
said Faisal Ijaz Khan, chief marketing officer for the Sudanese arm of
Kuwaiti mobile phone operator Zain (formerly MTC). "And then there are
another 130 million missed calls every day. There are a lot of missed
calls in Africa."
'CALL ME BACK'
Zain is responding to the demand by drawing up plans for a "Call-me-
back" service in Sudan, letting customers send open requests in the
form of a very basic signal to friends for a phone call.
The main advantage for the company is that the requests will be
diverted from the main network and pushed through using a much cheaper
technology (USSD or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data).
A handful of similar schemes are springing up across Africa, says
Informa principal analyst Devine Kofiloto. "It is widespread. It is a
concern for operators in African countries, whose networks become
congested depending on the time of day with calls they cannot bill
for.
"They try to discourage the practice by introducing services where
customers can send a limited number of 'call-back' request either free
of charge or for a minimum fee."
There are plenty of other reasons why mobile operators are keen to cut
down on the practice. One is it annoys customers, pestered by repeated
missed calls.
A second is that 'flashes' eat into one of mobile phone companies'
favorite performance indicators -- ARPU or average revenue per user.
Miscalls earn very little in themselves - and don't always persuade
the target to ring back.
Orange Senegal, Kofiloto said, lets customers send a 'Rappelle
moi' ('Call me back') when their phone credit drops below $0.10. With
Safaricom Kenya, it is a "Flashback 130" (limited to five a day -- and
with the admonishment 'Stop Flashing! Ask Nicely'). Vodacom DR Congo's
'Rappelez moi SVP' service costs $0.01 a message.
MORE THAN MONEY
But beeping is not only about money. Donner's 'Rules of Beeping'
suggests a social protocol for the practice.
"The richer guy pays," he writes. It is acceptable to beep someone if
you are short of cash and they are flush with credit. Never beep
someone poorer than you.
Never beep someone you are tapping for a favor. You don't want to risk
annoying the person you are trying to win over. Never flash your
girlfriend, unless you want to look cheap.
"Most beeps are requests to the mobile owner to call back immediately,
but can also send a pre-negotiated instrumental message such as pick
me up now,' or send a relational sign, such as I'm thinking of you,'"
the paper says.
It can go even further than that.
Cameroonian researchers Victor W.A. Mbarika and Irene Mbarika
identified a different kind of beeping-powered relational call in a
study for the technology association the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"Lovers often communicate with text messages or beeping'," said the
study. "One party dials another's number and then hangs up. One ring
could mean, I am here,' two rings, Call me now.'"
And the name they gave this new entry in the beeping lexicon?
Borrowing a street slang term for an appeal for sex, they christened
it "the booty call."
George Grapman
they were handled by a live operator. If we were going to be home at a
certain hour or getting to an airport we would make a collect call home.
The person answering the phone would tell the operator to try later as
no one who could accept the call would be around. We would then say "I
will call back at 8" and hang up.
With cells and cheap calls it is generally no longer done but it is
even easier now as collect calls are automated-"This is AT&T with a
collect call from 'Flight 237 arriving 8 p.m.' "
Terryc
> When you have a cell phone and need to get information through...and
> almost no money.
Tough. If the phone companies had a clue, they could can this up front.
just introduce a basic call connect fee with an included number of
seconds, just like we have here.
George Grapman
But the poster is talking about not picking up the phone and
therefore no connection.
Terryc
> But the poster is talking about not picking up the phone and
> therefore no connection.
Woops
False call fee?
1c on call?
Delayed connect? Make caller wait for 2, 3, 4+ rings before you
actually prompt the sender or log as a "missed call"
Surely it is easy to note the peeps who do this and can them? Perhasp
QOs will be used to prioritise those on plans over prepaids.
Of course the long term solution is to point out the peeps that real
friends dont do this.
Wasn't this a sales slime trick at one stage?
Gordon
Read the fine print in your cell phone service agrement.
You are charged from the time that you initiate the call,
usually by pushing the GO or Send button. If no one picks up,
you are charged the minimum rate. Usually 1 minute.
So the phone companies do have a clue. If they aren't charging
for uncompleted connections, it's because the are prevented from
doing so by some regulation.