Phone credit low? Africans go for “beeping”
By Andrew Heavens | Wed Sep 26, 11:32 AM ET

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – 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.”

Mobile phone use is taking off in Sri Lanka – though not, perhaps, in ways that service operators might have hoped.

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

In the world’s poorer countries, the purchase of a mobile phone has become increasingly affordable. Using it, however, can still be a struggle. Low-income mobile phone owners in Sri Lanka are getting around this problem with a novel method for keeping costs down.

Known as ring cutting, mobile phone subscribers rely on ring tones to communicate with others, rather than actually staying on the line to talk. By a pre-arranged signal that will convey the desired message – “two rings means I’m home” – callers negate the need for a conversation. They simply hang up as soon as the number of tones are finished. The recipients’ phone log records the number of the person who dialled, and at what time. They can choose to call back, or not.

In a country where regular bloodshed, terrorism and sectarian violence has many people living in fear of their safety, ring cutting has developed into an extremely popular, cost-effective way of keeping in touch. A recent survey by LIRNEasia, a regional telecoms think-tank that studied mobile phone usage patterns in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, found that Sri Lanka lagged only the Philippines in the ring cut stakes. LIRNEAsia surveyed around 9,000 low income earners aged between 18 and 80 years old. About half of mobile phone users in Sri Lanka are confirmed ring cutters, compared to 65% in the Philippines.

The economics of ring cutting are simply. Sri Lankans can buy a mobile phone for about US$30. But call rates of 5.00 rupees (0.05 US cents) per minute are not affordable to the many who earn less than US$100 a month. However, under a pre-pay system they can pay as little as 20 rupees (0.19 US cents) for a SIM card. If they mostly use their phones to ring cut, the credit on the SIM card can last for months.

Needless to say, telecom service providers are hardly thrilled by the practice. Mobile phone companies offer incoming calls for free and rely on a connection being completed to make their money. Adding insult to injury, many people use landlines, often at their workplace, to return calls, further circumventing the mobile network. Harsha de Silva, LIRNEasia’s lead economist, observes: “Missed calls are not good for the networks – less revenue; not good for the state – less taxes; and not necessarily good for the user – networks get blocked and we can’t talk.”

Model e-village

And for those Sri Lankans not able to jump onto the mobile bandwagon, a new service is taking root that’s even better than ring cutting. Far from the bright lights of Colombo, the country’s first 24-hour outdoor wireless computer network is now up and running in Mahavilachchiya, an tiny village 40km from the nearest town of Anuradhapura.

Mahavilachchiya is surrounded on three sides by the Vilpattu jungle, and most of the residents are farmers or labourers with a monthly income of about 5,000-10,000 rupees (US$50-100). While the village is connected to electricity supply, it is not yet covered by either terrestrial or mobile phone networks. The number of phones in the village: zero. The number of PCs in the village: 50 and rising.

Given the absence of telecommunications infrastructure and the scattered nature of the settlement, a more traditional wired network was not practical in technical terms, nor economically feasible. But thanks to the efforts of a charity, the Horizon Lanka Foundation, and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), a workable solution has been found. Most of the computers are situated in the homes of local children, and as many as 200 use the machines for their studies, to access the Internet, and to send emails. Given a set of headphones, internet telephony is also possible. The computers are linked to a multimedia lab, which provides training and resources.

Projects like these, however, are not crimping growth in Sri Lanka’s telecom sector which soared to 7.3m users in 2006, led by a 59% rise in new mobile phone connections. Growth was spurred by competition from new market players and call rate cuts of as much as 40%, the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission says. Although the waiting list for fixed-line phone services remains long – 366,000 at last count – fixed-line subscribers rose to 1.9m in 2006 from 1.2m a year earlier, after the Commission granted CDMA licenses to three firms, allowing them to use the cheaper technology to expand their offerings outside the main centres.

But it is cellular services, based on both GSM and CDMA technology, which have enabled many rural residents to get phones. The number of cellular phone users grew to 5.4m by the end of 2006, from 3.4m a in 2005. Liberalisation of the sector is hitting its mark and it’s an ongoing process. India’s largest private phone company, Bharti Airtel, is set to become the fifth mobile phone player in Sri Lanka, launching services by the end of 2007. Bharti plans to invest US$100m in the first year of operation, so the number of those without access to a phone can only keep falling.

As competition increases, rates will need to continue to fall, otherwise service providers will find more and more of their customers deserting them for internet telephony and tricks like ring cutting.

SOURCE: INDUSTRY BRIEFING

Read article on Global Technology Forum

Quoting the industry watchdog Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the AFP report said despite a waiting list of around 366,000 for fixed-line phone services, mobile phones, including GSM and CDMA systems, had allowed rural residents to get phone services immediately.
 

The AFP report further said fixed-line subscribers rose to 1.9 million in 2006 from 1.2 million a year ago after the commission gave CDMA licenses allowing three firms to use the cheaper technology and expand in rural areas.
 

The number of cellular phone users grew to 5.4 million in 2006 from 3.4 million a year earlier, as operators slashed tariffs by up to 40%, the report said.
 

The clear majority of new users buy pre-paid cards, the commission said.
 

With India’s largest private phone company, Bharti Airtel, lined up to be the fifth mobile phone player, analysts expect further price cuts, especially outside the capital, to tap rural users in the nation of 19 million, the report said.
 

Bharti, which is due to start services by year-end, has promised to invest $100 million within the first year of operation, the report further said.

Source: http://www.telecomasia.net/article.php?type=article&id_article=3602