Please Call Me is a mobile callback service that allows cellphone users who have run out of airtime to ask another subscriber to call them back without incurring any charges.
Rather than sending a conventional SMS, the service runs over USSD – Unstructured Supplementary Service Data – a protocol that lets a handset talk directly to a mobile network’s computers in real time without touching airtime. It is the same technology behind balance enquiries and airtime top-ups.
To use it, a subscriber enters a USSD code and the recipient’s number. Vodacom’s platform picks up the request, identifies both parties and fires off an automatically generated SMS to the recipient asking them to call the originator back.
Because the request travels over USSD rather than SMS, the sender pays nothing to initiate it. The only message the recipient gets is the one the network generates itself.
Tracking use
The service sits within Vodacom’s value-added services portfolio, running alongside the core voice network. The callback request costs the originator nothing, but when the recipient calls back, that call is billed in the normal way, generating revenue for the operator.
Vodacom can also track how well the service works. By matching callback requests against return calls, it can estimate how many requests result in a completed call and how much revenue those calls generate.
The solution was different to that of rivals; MTN’s equivalent required customers to call an automated Interactive Voice Response system and work through voice prompts.
The service was aimed primarily at prepaid subscribers who had run out of airtime but still needed to stay connected while also pushing more traffic across the network.
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