You have Missed Calls from +97517XXXXX Called At 10:40 On 03/09/2012.It May be important to call back.This is an important and useful service. It also benefits Bhutan Telecom: sending an SMS is virtually free for the mobile operator, but the service will encourage people to make more calls. Here's how the service is described on BT's website:
Bhutan Telecom is pleased to inform all our valued customers that the Missed Call Alert service has been commissioned. Subscribe to FREE MCA and capture all the important calls you have missed while you phone is switched off or out of reach.Bhutan Telecom is so confident about this service that it is enrolling some users for this service without even asking for their consent. There is, however, a privacy issue with this service which BT forgot to mention. When you subscribe to MCA and someone tries to call you, in addition to the SMS you receive, the person calling you - the caller - knows when you switched your phone back on. How? Apparently, the caller also gets an SMS. Here's a sample message received by a caller. Note: Again, the inconsistent capitalization is in the original message.
All Postpaid users will be registered for MCA by default.
You tried to call +97517XXXXX at 10:40 on 03/09/2012. He/She is back in Network at 10:43 on 03/09/12. Try Calling Again.This "feature" - the SMS received by the caller - is not mentioned on BT's website. Basically, the caller now knows that (1) you're back on the network (2) you received a message about the missed call. There are various privacy issues with this feature, as well as some various odd situations this can create. For example, it allows people to follow you. Say you're out of Bhutan. Once you return and switch on the phone, anyone who called you during your absence will receive a message. Good or bad?
Here's another example. Suppose you just called a secret friend whose phone is turned off. But you don't want anyone to know you dialed that person, so you delete his/her number from your Dialled Numbers list. However, if your secret friend has MCA turned on, once they are back on the network an SMS from B-Mobile will suddenly be sent to your phone, revealing that you tried calling this secret friend! I'm sure you can think of some unpleasant situations this can cause...
By the way, B-Mobile is using two different recorded messages for disconnected phones, one for MCA-subscribed phones, the other for phones that are not subscribed to the service. This means that a caller can know whether you're subscribed to the service! Here are the messages:
- The number you're calling cannot be connected at the moment. Please try again later. (Subscribed to MCA)
- Subscriber switched off. Try after some time. (Not subscribed to MCA)
To subscribe to the MCA service, send SUB to 707. To unsubscribe, send UNSUB to 707.
Thanks for the information. Very helpful and early warning to choose this application.
ReplyDelete@AB, Hopefully @bhutan_telecom will disable the privacy-invading "feature", or educate subscribers about it.
ReplyDeleteVery informative
ReplyDeleteThis so called privacy invasion is not relevant in Bhutan. Maybe it is where you come from...but they are different. so lets just say it is a useful serivce. Thailand operators have this feature by default
ReplyDeleteThis so called Privacy issue is not relevant in Bhutan. Maybe it is where you come from..but they are not same, are they.
ReplyDeleteTHailand operators have this feature by default and noone is complaining. I see that you are against Bhutan Telecom going by what you write about their services. you once wrote about how slow the druknet link is.
I challenge you to make a visit to BT once and speak to relevant people and see for yourself what is going on there..then maybe you will learn to appreciate more.
BTW i am not from Telecom..just a visitor to your blog and a simple Bhutanese
you will appreciate that Bhutan being a landlocked country is trying to bring Gbps Internet link ..I can bet many developing countries wont match to this.
ReplyDeleteBeing a landlocked country helps with international connectivity. It's cheaper to lay cables across land than across the sea, which is what sea-locked countries need to do.
DeleteNow sir, I beg to differ!
DeleteSubmarine cables maybe difficult to lay but they are done by big companies who have the means and purpose to do so. Coastal areas are rich
Landlocked countries like Bhutan or Nepal are poor. and cables layed on land is prone to accidents every inch of the length.
Submarine cable have much less accidents.