We had recently covered the news that Airtel is coming up with a fixed line telephone directory which would allow people to search for a user through their website but the bummer was that Airtel started asking users to send SMS to a premium number if they wished to remain anonymous. Airtel claimed that this move was as per the DOT mandate which requires them to publish the directory online. The thing which baffled many is that Airtel charged Rs 3 per SMS for people who do not wish to be listed in the online directory.
This is a pretty shrewd move from Airtel and it looks like they are hell-bent on spiking the revenue. The good thing is that they have now included an Exclude Number option also which lets you delist your number online.
Reliance has made its online directory live with similar features. We feel that this is an outdated move when there are many other ways of obtaining contact numbers for instance online listing portals like Justdial have aggregated everything that we would need from a directory. If it is a friend or relatives number we are searching for we can always send them a mail or just ask them on social networking sites.
