This is an open letter to all of my friends in Beijing who call me on my mobile phone. In reality, it is to anyone from outside TL who calls me on my mobile phone. If I don’t answer it, then the recorded number on my mobile is a Beijing number.
I don’t know if this applies to international calls from everywhere but nevertheless, returning a call to that Beijing number is futile. Don’t ask me how it works but it would appear that international calls (from OZ, I assume) are routed through Beijing via some internet mechanism.
So I am really not being rude in not responding. I just don’t know who called. But it could be worse, Kiwis can not call home from a mobile here, presumably because there is no agreement between the respective phone companies. Whereas I can call and text quite freely from mobile to anywhere in OZ.
Seems there is a scam on from China. You get this call pretty late at night. The next day when you answer it, you are redirected to some phone-sex service and then you get billed for a hefty sum on phone bill. People were warning me about it here in Singapore.
I never return calls from unknown numbers – period. Someone told me calls were routed via an internet voice mechanism through Beijing and I believed them. In either case, I am not likely to find out.