Free mobile calls could be the future?

I always thought it was a possibility and my faith has been reinforced. I’m talking about the possibility of free mobile phone calls and going by the development in mobile advertising industry, it could soon become reality.

Vodafone recently launched Free4me portal, which you can access through its multimedia menu Vodafone Live. What’s so special about this portal? Well; all the services, I mean every single service, in the portal are free. That’s right, it won’t cost you a single penny. Everything is ad-funded and if you agree to get ads on your mobile phone, you can use the services free of cost. The ads could come in the form of banner ads, SMS or text messages, and MMS.

As of now, the portal has mobile TV shows, competitions, club guides, and other services for customers. Vodafone is planning to add a lot more to the portal in the form of music videos, celebrity interviews, live shows, and video footage from TV shows.

Experts predict that by 2012, free mobile calls could become reality, thanks to mobile advertising. Who knows? May be twenty years from now, our kids won’t even know that something called mobile bill existed.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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So, what’s your take on cellphone advertising?

Right from tomorrow, you will be charged $100 a month for watching TV at home and $50 a month for listening to radio. Wait; there is a catch. From tomorrow, there will be no advertisements on TV and radio to interrupt you while you’re watching your favorite show. Doesn’t sound that exciting, does it?

What went wrong people? You hate ads; don’t you? You get annoyed whenever you get ads, you don’t like being interrupted while you’re watching your favorite show or your favorite movie for that matter, and you get annoyed big time when you get an ad in the radio when you’re listening to the latest news. So, pay the money and enjoy ad-free television and radio. Wait; did I hear you say “adverts are a part of television and radio broadcasting as they need to keep it free for people”?

Bingo; you’re right on the money. They have advertisers backing them up so that you can enjoy TV and radio without paying a dime. Now, what exactly is wrong in applying the same method in cellphones, could you please tell me?

The moment someone mentions cellphone ads, you jump over the roof shouting, “harassment, intrusion, violation of privacy, annoying” and every other word in your vocabulary; don’t you? What if the operators were to provide you with unlimited internet access if you agreed to get ads on your cellphone? Or what if the advertisers were to bear the costs of your text messages if you agreed to accept text message ads on your phone? Or even better, what if they give you free talk time if you agreed to listen to audio ads instead of a ringback tone? Doesn’t it sound freaking good?

I just want to know. Why the hell would anyone have problems with cellphone ads? If TV and radio can play ads any time they want, without your permission, 24 hours a day, why not cellphones? And that too, when you have the option to choose or reject your ads on your cellphone, why on earth would you have a problem? Beats me.

Remember these golden rules.

1. Cellphone advertisers are not vampires. They only send you relevant ads, in other words, something (read offers, discounts, and freebies) which you could make use of.

2. They do give you a choice to opt in or opt out of any advertising plan. It’s not that they point a gun at your head to make you get ads.

3. Most importantly, cellphone advertising is here to stay – irrespective of the hoopla created by a bunch of privacy advocates who don’t even understand the essence of the issue.

Hope that clears all the misconceptions about cellphone advertising. Now, next time when I hear someone say anything stupid about cellphone advertising, I’m gonna put them under the special plan I mentioned in the first paragraph. Ciao.

Categories: Rant.

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