Good cell phone numbers too come at a premium

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New Delhi, Jun 23: It is time your cell phone number does the talking for you. Allow it to set you apart from the rest. But all these come at a price—one needs to pay a premium and get lucky enough.

For the uninitiated, premium mobile numbers are quite like vehicle registration numbers, which people wish to have in a particular pattern for varied reasons. Some numbers have a bearing with the individual - their dates of birth, anniversary or bank account numbers; others propelled by superstition or numerology.

When mobile telephony took roots in India, people just wished to have a mobile number, which had some numerals in common with their landline numbers. Back then it was more a matter of convenience than anything else. But with Indian mobile phone users having outnumbered fixed-line customers almost half a decade back and with the subscriber base growing by at least five million every month, Lady Luck has come to have a big role to play.

Idea Cellular has ‘Silver’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’ slots for premium numbers. The ‘Silver’ numbers have last three digits as zero. The ‘Gold’ numbers have the last four digits as zero and the rest of the number set in a sequence—say all 5s or 6s. And in the crème de la crème— ‘Platinum’ numbers—six to seven digits are the same. Say for instance, 9891 111111. In fact, considering religious and sentimental values Idea even launched a series of numbers containing 786. “It was just an attempt to add value to our service and then market it well,” says Rajat Mukarji, chief corporate affairs officer, Idea Cellular.

Reliance too has categorised the premium numbers as ‘Platinum’, ‘Diamond’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’. Decode them as ‘Easy to remember, penta, hexa and numbers of numerological importance’. Depending on the availability and the type of number you will have to shell out anything between Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. Just walk in any of the Reliance World/Reliance Communication outlets. For all you know you may get something as premium as 93456 93456 or 93055 55555!