An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online

Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by lifeisstillgood on Saturday April 10, 2021 @08:11AM (#26760908)

I bring this up because I remember arranging similar things with my parents as a child. The walk home from school was moderately long for a kid (4 ish miles) and if it was raining it was uttterly miserable. So I could shelter in the railway station and call home for a lift - but I rarely had the money and hell it was two bags of crisps for a single call. So two missed calls in a row while it was raining was signal to my mum "come get me at the station!"

I think I am saying that I am old enough that I span generational shifts in wealth.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by toast0 on Saturday April 10, 2021 @03:00PM (#26764048)

We did collect calls...

Would you like to accept a collect call from senior lot? Meant please pick me up from the senior lot. At some point, collect calling became possible for third parties, and they let the caller hear the other party answer so you knew you got the information to them.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by drdeadringer on Saturday April 10, 2021 @05:36PM (#26765364)

Remember the TV ads regarding telephone calls and collect calls?

"You have a collect call from ... 'we-had-a-baby-it's-a-boy' ... do you accept the charges?"

"No." [Hangs up]

"Who was it?"

"Jimmy and Susan. They had a baby. It's a boy."

[Buy our better value telephone service!]

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by pimlottc on Saturday April 10, 2021 @09:21PM (#26766783)

Link to that ad: https://youtu.be/NxAWqyVY1Fg?t=9

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by pcthrowaway on Saturday April 10, 2021 @06:39PM (#26765883)

Actually, it was warning about not cheating the phone company, and saving money by buying Geico instead.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by jamiek88 on Saturday April 10, 2021 @02:17PM (#26763656)

Same here. Three rings meant I was home safe when riding bike 6 miles from nans or to nans. Now all my nieces and nephews have iPhones.

Happy for them but something has been lost in independence.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by bengale on Saturday April 10, 2021 @05:17PM (#26765203)

I’d completely forgotten this but I remember always keeping a small amount of credit on my phone so I could ‘dead ring’ home and I’d get a call back.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by moralestapia on Saturday April 10, 2021 @10:46PM (#26767127)

Oooh, the memories! :D

Used to do that w/ friends who had unltd. call plans.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by banana_giraffe on Saturday April 10, 2021 @06:27PM (#26765784)

My father had a car phone (that is, for those that may not know, one of the early mobile phones you had to have installed in your car).

We also had caller ID at home. We knew if he called us at home and hung up before we answered he was just calling to let us know he was stuck in traffic and would be late for dinner.

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Re:An industry based on missed calls helped bring India online by markdown on Saturday April 10, 2021 @04:29PM (#26764860)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V04bh-G4-qU

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