When I was a teenager, one of the local mobile providers had some plans where they would only charge you for a call after being connected for more than five seconds. One friend abused the hell out of this and started using it as "free push-to-talk" essentially. I had a plan with free calling time, so he would also sometimes call me, tell me to call him back, and hang up within about three seconds.
Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
91–100 of 125 posts
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#92Now calls from those shitheads in india are free and they keep scamming us. I feel bad because they need soap and deodorant and some kind of food that fixes their shit holes.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#93We did that in Bulgaria back in the days as well. We also had a special verb for the act of ringing and hanging up immediately - "to clip" (from Calling line identification presentation = CLIP). There was also the case where one of your friends would have many free minutes in one of the network. Then you would just "clip" them and the expectation was that they call you, because it was for free.
Same in Portugal: we called it "dar um toque". Literally: to ring only once. I grew up with this.
"Dar un toque" in Spain, grew up with it as well haha
I remember doing it with friends, girls I liked... it's interesting how we're constantly looking for ways to communicate.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#94I work on a system like this. We provide agricultural advice to farmers (mainly in India and Kenya but also in some other countries). They can leave a missed call on our system, and will receive a call back where they can navigate a menu with information on a variety of topics, or they can record a question which will then be answered by an agronomist (the answer will be pushed to them as a separate call, once it's r…
What is the reason for this? Are incoming calls sheaper than outgoing calls?
Yes, In India incoming calls are free (been like that for a very long time).
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#95I work on a system like this. We provide agricultural advice to farmers (mainly in India and Kenya but also in some other countries). They can leave a missed call on our system, and will receive a call back where they can navigate a menu with information on a variety of topics, or they can record a question which will then be answered by an agronomist (the answer will be pushed to them as a separate call, once it's r…
What is the reason for this? Are incoming calls sheaper than outgoing calls?
It depends a little bit on the contract with the provider, but the idea is that we are an NGO/charity and we don't want the farmers to have to incur costs for this. If we answer the phone they pay, if we hang up and call back we pay. In some cases we are able to set up toll-free numbers and then we can just answer.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same in Portugal: we called it "dar um toque". Literally: to ring only once. I grew up with this.
"Dar un toque" in Spain, grew up with it as well haha I remember doing it with friends, girls I liked... it's interesting how we're constantly looking for ways to communicate.
'Anklingeln' in Germany. Mobile credit on pocket money was expensive..
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#97When I was travelling a decade ago I needed a way for friends and family to be able to contact me. Roaming rates were ridiculous at the time (something like £3/min to receive calls). As such I got a local prepay SIM card in each country I visited, however sometimes I only had a number for a week or two before I went somewhere else, so giving that out to people wasn't a good idea.
I got a VOIP number in my home country, and set up my mobile number (at home) to redirect to that - this is a feature of GSM, so should be supported nearly everywhere. *21*# to activate it. My home number was just calling another local number, so it was included in my plan. I setup the VOIP number to forward to the SIM in the country, and every time I went somewhere new I just changed the destination number. So I was reachable, and only had to pay a few pence per minute for it.
That mostly worked, but when someone called me it showed my VOIP number, not the number of the person who originally called. In Asterisk I could see I was receiving the caller's phone number, but my SIP trunk provider was filtering it out. One little email to support and I was able to set the originating number so it showed who actually called me - in reality this meant I could call anyone worldwide with any originator number shown.
The other problem which goes with this article is how to make outgoing calls. At first I used a SIP client on my computer, but then I went to a few places with pretty poor internet so that wasn't possible. I setup a script on Asterisk so if it received a phone call from my number (of the local SIM I had at the time) it would reject the call, then after a few seconds call me back. It would present a dial tone, and allow me to enter a phone number to call, after which it would dial it and connect me. Technically someone could have spoofed that, and made phone calls at my expense, but I figured the risk was pretty low. Boom, ultra low cost international calls while travelling :-)
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#98Long before cell phones and answering machines my Dad was a pharmacist in a small town. He was happy to drive down to the drugstore when a customer called our home needing an after-hours refill, except on Sunday which was his recharge day. On Sundays we were instructed never to answer the phone unless it rang twice, paused, then rang again. Close family members knew the secret code; customers just learned Dad wasn't…
Same here. Even if my dad wasn't on call, his job would call every saturday and sunday with some dumb emergency caused by their own cheapness. So we pulled the phone plug at night, and at daytime we counted the rings.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Dar un toque" in Spain, grew up with it as well haha I remember doing it with friends, girls I liked... it's interesting how we're constantly looking for ways to communicate.
'Anklingeln' in Germany. Mobile credit on pocket money was expensive..
„Puścić strzałkę” (to send/drop an arrow) in Polish. Also sometimes called „puścić sygnał (to send/drop a signal), „puścić dzwonek” (to send/drop a ring), and other variants.
Re: Don't Pick Up: Missed calls in India
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Anklingeln' in Germany. Mobile credit on pocket money was expensive..
„Puścić strzałkę” (to send/drop an arrow) in Polish. Also sometimes called „puścić sygnał (to send/drop a signal), „puścić dzwonek” (to send/drop a ring), and other variants.
Fare uno squillo in Italian