Hot Lines, Hard Cash

DIAL XXX for sex. And, if based in India, you may as well keep dialling. There is no syrupy voice as promised in the ads that ask provocatively "Are you lonesome? I’m waiting for your call! Ladies contact 0063 988 222 6695. Gents contact 00 63 988 222 67 24." Only a dead-tone drone. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, the telecom body, in a paroxysm of prudishness triggered by the ad featured in a leading daily in Mumbai, had blocked that tantalising number a month ago. Even as the moral brigade heaves a sigh of relief, the VSNL has turned taciturn over its blockade. The ads continue to appear in print as well as on music channels euphemistically referred to as ‘party lines’ that promise to fizz lonely callers.

According to Channel V, these ads for the dubious party lines are displayed in India during the Adults Only period. More precisely, after 10 pm when obedient children have been put to bed. But cat-killing curiosity will get no response on these lines either. You guessed right. VSNL has jammed these too. VSNL sources reluctantly confess to listening to the Higher Voice of Conscience and taking on the mantle of the moral police. "The moment our attention is drawn to these ads we block them. This means nobody from within India can get through to these numbers." Of course, VSNL only bungs up those numbers which come to its notice, which means those advertised within the country. These are less than the proverbial drop in the ocean of such numbers available worldwide, any of which may be brought in by those who have travelled abroad.

A VSNL source admits that the telecom body has not exactly tom-tommed the barricade. Since, in a democracy one man’s prurience is another’s preference. T.H. Chowdhury, former chief general manager of VSNL, scoffs at its vaunting moral stance: "I highly appreciate VSNL’s concern. But the main reason behind the blockade is financial. VSNL has arrangements with over 236 countries on the traffic of calls. For instance, in the VSNL’s arrangement with AT&T (American Telephones and Telecommunications), if 10,000 calls are made between the two countries and of these 1,000 went out of India, the difference (charges for the 9,000 calls) is paid by AT&T to VSNL." Which, he reasons, may explain VSNL’s concern over calls going out of India, especially to these titillating parties whose income is generated by prolonging the call as long as possible even, and especially, if it means a nightmarish bill to the caller.

In the glorious pre-blockade days when the lonesome called up the saccharine ‘let’s-have-abash’ voices, some telephone subscribers ended up with distressingly long ISD bills. Especially when their phones were left unattended or without an electronic lock. Or when their latchkey children were tempted into making these calls when starchy parents were not around. "There were several complaints of such bills which ran into lakhs of rupees. Even in cases where VSNL was unable to recover the money from the (mostly middle-class) subscribers, VSNL had no option but to pay up to AT&T or any other organisation through which these international calls were made. This led to heavy losses for VSNL," says Chowdhury.

VSNL has no objections to the ads nor has it jammed international numbers which offer services related to astrology, health (some were helplines on sexually transmitted diseases), sports commentary and on crucial elections worldwide. But in these cases the callers never dragged on the conversation after acquiring the required information. And some numbers, like those on astrological services, had only taped messages which did not bleed VSNL’s account.

Similar ‘value-added’ services are likely to be launched next month within the country itself—the licences have already been awarded. And it would be difficult for VSNL to monitor these since the telecom body is not a policing authority. A VSNL source, who has vetted these international numbers to check just how smutty these really were, says: "Actually they are not pornographic. But the person at the other end just tries to lead the caller into long conversations." Or is it just that he had prissily failed to take the bait?

According to those in the know, these ‘value-added services’ are normally offered in countries where the telecom industry is privatised. They often generate from developed countries where the number of calls had plateaued—these ‘value-added’ services were used to energise the trade. "The telephone industry is based on what is called ‘pure chance’. Hence, incentives are introduced to increase chance hits and are encouraged by the governments of developed countries. India is likely to grant licences costing around Rs 15 lakh a year to indigenous ‘value-added’ services which may not require calls going out of the nation," says the source. These can even be advertised under ‘entertainment’. And you thought it was morality and not Mammon behind the move to protect subscribers from the seduction of the Let’s Talk lines.