Phone credit low? Africans go for "beeping"

Sounds similar to using collect calls requests to convey a message.. "Press one to accept a collect call from <meetmeatthebusstop> click"

I remember a TV commercial that involved this a few years ago. Oddly enough, I think it was for a phone company.

In South-Africa, it was called Scotch-ing, as in the Tape. What would often happen is people would say. Scotch me when you get to so and so's place, or Scoth me when you are going for dinner...

One of the cellphone providers would also give you a code *147 or something and someone's number and it would send a "please call me" text message with your number included. People would say. Send me a "please call me" when you are there...

Everyone does it.

On vacation in Lebanon three years ago, I learned that this same thing is routine over there too. People work out systems about what one missed call means as compared to two, and so on.

Funnily enough, a missed call probably conveys just about as much meaning as the average text message.

Some time ago I was thinking that it wouldnt be hard to make software and connects phone to computer and sends the text as Morse code trough prank calls. So you would have free international communication device. Only extremely slow.

From my experience of hanging out with friends in India, every conversation ends with something like "give me a missed call."

Though it originated as a way to save money especially for pre-paid mobile users, it has come to mean a whole lot of things now. ie. if you are to meet someone for coffee and he hasn't shown up yet, instead of calling you give him a missed call so he knows you're waiting.

At my previous office, we had to wait 1+ month to get badges so we used to do this all the time to get people to come down to open the door. No need to pick up... if it rings twice, come to the front door and open it.

I remember doing this when all my friends were on prepaid phones. We called it 'pranking', though: "Just prank me when you want me to pick you up."

When I was a kid we used to call it "pranking"

in Ukraine poor people used to use a first free 4 seconds to talk, but after that per-connection fee was introduced.

My friends and I do this all the time. I never leave voicemail, why bother? The fact that I'm on the missed call list makes is good enough. And my incoming minutes are free!