The craze for fancy numbers among the public are high and telecom companies convert this into a source of revenue, according to an analysis by Economic Times (ET). The report brings together several instances where the people are found to be buying fancy numbers as a status symbol or due to religious significance of the numbers.
A subscriber from Ahmedabad spent Rs. 2.25 lakhs for an attractive number in a recent auction held by BSNL. Similar was the case of a businessman who spend 1.5 lakhs to purchase a VIP number from a private operator.
BSNL is the only service provider who introduced e-auction facility for its subscribers in 2012. In the auction, a fancy number that begins the bid with Rs. 11,000 may go up to Rs. 25,000, ET reports. The numbers beginning with 786 are considered to be premium due to its religious significance and any mobile number with repeated 786 in them are more sought out. Such numbers are sold for prices between Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2000.
Numbers that end with 555, 666, 777, 111, 000, 007, 888 et cetera are also in demand and dealers call them as golden numbers, ET found. Many of them buy such numbers as they make easy remembrance to the clients.
