The way it worked was simple: you dialed a USSD command which included the recipient’s number, and they then received an SMS alert with your number stating that you wanted them to call you.<\/p>\n
The best part was that the service was free and the only limitation was the maximum number of messages you could send each day.<\/p>\n
During the years the Please Call Me first became popular, the latest technologies available on cellphones included MMS and Infrared for file transfer, and Mxit for messaging.<\/p>\n
A combination of factors eventually caused the Please Call Me to lose adoption, although it still has its proponents around the country.<\/p>\n
The widespread uptake of WhatsApp, the launch of zero-rated services, and falling mobile data prices reduced South Africans’ reliance on SMS, voicemail, cellular phone calls, and eventually the Please Call Me service.<\/p>\n
While the minuscule cost of a WhatsApp message makes sending a Please Call Me almost redundant today, we decided to try out the feature on each mobile network – both for the nostalgia and to check whether the service still works.<\/p>\n
The service is definitely still going on all networks, although some operators offer a better experience than others. The results are shown below.<\/p>\n
\n
Vodacom – Please Call Me<\/h3>\n
Daily Limit: <\/strong>10<\/p>\n Vodacom’s Please Call Me service was the one that coined the term that is widely used among South Africans.<\/p>\n By dialling *140*<\/strong>[number]<\/em>#<\/strong>, you can send a Please Call Me to the recipient of your choice.<\/p>\n As can be seen in the screenshot below, the final message includes an advert which displays an embedded image on modern smartphones.<\/p>\n The advert we received when testing a Vodacom Please Call Me was for a mobile gaming service named “GameMine”.<\/p>\n Daily Limit: <\/strong>5<\/p>\n MTN’s CallBack service limits you to five messages per day and can be used by dialing *121*<\/strong>[number]<\/em>#<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This message does not include any advertisement and simply delivers the message “Please Call [number]”.<\/p>\n Interestingly, MTN is the only mobile operator which does not include an advert in its Please Call Me messages.<\/p>\n Daily Limit: <\/strong>5<\/p>\n Cell C’s Call Me Back service also limits you to five messages per day and can be accessed by dialling *111*<\/strong>[number]<\/em>#<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This message includes an advertisement in text form which invites users to dial a USSD code.<\/p>\n The advertisement we received invited us to “WIN AIRTIME” with “WhatsApp Status!” for a subscription charge of R3 per day.<\/p>\n Daily Limit: <\/strong>5<\/p>\n Telkom’s Call Me service limits you to five messages per day and can be accessed by dialing *140*<\/strong>[number]<\/em>#<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This message includes an advertisement in text form which offers users a special deal on Telkom products.<\/p>\n The advertisement we received requested us to visit a Telkom store and take advantage of a Telkom LTE special offering 40GB of data for R249 per month.<\/p>\n Many cellphone features have gone out of fashion, but there are perhaps none that evoke more nostalgia for South Africans than the Please Call Me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341028,"featured_media":165134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,35,42,20801,109,41],"class_list":["post-318101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-please-call-me","tag-telkom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318199,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318101\/revisions\/318199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Please](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Please-Call-Me-Vodacom-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMTN – CallBack<\/h3>\n
![\"Please](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Please-Call-Me-MTN-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCell C – Call Me Back<\/h3>\n
![\"Please](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Please-Call-Me-Cell-C-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTelkom – Call Me<\/h3>\n
![\"Please](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Please-Call-Me-Telkom-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNow read: Cell C terminating fixed-LTE services<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"