Cell phone hangs up on drunken dialers

Ever woken up one morning with a raging hangover that was promptly worsened by the memory of the drunken cell phone call to the ex at 3 a.m.?

If the memory is not painful enough, the aftermath--potentially involving apologies, restraining orders, a "friendly visit" from the ex's new partner (who is probably either a black belt in Zen Do Kai or a leading underworld figure) and sundry other humiliations--adds to the agony.

Amid the flurry of capped plans, bundling and discounting characterizing the pre-Christmas mobile marketplace, Australia's Virgin Mobile has sought to differentiate itself with a service tailored to help people avoid making those embarrassing drunken calls.

A survey of 409 people by Virgin Mobile, a joint venture of The Virgin Group and Optus, found 95 percent made drunken phone calls. Of those calls, 30 percent were to ex-partners, 19 percent to current partners, and 36 percent to other people, including their bosses.

The company said that, beginning Wednesday, Virgin Mobile customers could dial 333 plus a phone number they don't want to call when drunk. Virgin Mobile would--for a 25-cent fee--stop all calls to that number by blacklisting it until 6 a.m. the following day.

The move comes amid an intensifying price war between mobile players to secure customers, exemplified Tuesday by a flurry of announcements. Virgin is launching a new AU$45 (about $35) monthly cap that includes up to AU$200 (about $155) worth of mobile services, while rival Vodafone also launched a new AU$49 (about $38) cap that would allow customers to use up to AU$230 (about $178) worth of services.

For its part, Optus touted a service allowing its customers to call overseas on their mobiles for the cost of a local call.

Iain Ferguson of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.

[mortis9]

great idea

though it sounds silly, i've made a few drunken calls in my time i wish i hadn't. i hope cingular catches on.

[BazNZ]

*hehehe*

True. Or the miscontrued text messages that get worse, the more you try to appologize and make it right; I think they call it ?Digging the hole deeper?

good idea but

Thats nice but the "drunk' one better check his bill when the hangover passes or he will find he has several input calls without any identification as Sprint does. All other cellular companies supple who a customer receives calls but Sprint says it cant do it. I know this because I am a Sprint customer. Shame on Sprint. Are they defruading the customer in their zest to zoom from third to first?? imagine that