By Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The craze for fancy numbers has gone cellular. In perhaps the largest premium paid so far for any mobile number, a city resident shelled out Rs 10 lakh to get a prized number of 9 nines in the 10-digit number offered by a leading service provider. The number nine or numbers adding up to nine is considered lucky. While till now VVIPs and commoners alike paid heavy premiums for a fancy car number the mania has now spread to cellphone numbers. The owner of the prized cellphone number was identified only as Peter. Efforts to reach Peter on this number proved futile as the phone was switched off. Till recently, the fancy mobile numbers fetched anything between Rs 1,000 to Rs 2 lakh for the service providers. But with the launch of a new series by some companies, the prices have shot up as there is more variety. But Rs 10 lakh for a single number is a new high. “Going by the series, you may not get such a fanciful number in any other cell circle (state). So, obviously this could be the maximum that a mobile number could fetch for the companies,” said an official of a cell service provider. Home minister K Jana Reddy, however, is lucky to get one of the most unique mobile numbers without paying a single rupee as premium. Eight out of the 10 digits in his number are sixes. The number was originally priced at Rs 2 lakh but was given free to the home minister. With gross reduction in call charges, cell service providers are making up for it by selling fancy numbers for a premium. In any new series, there are nothing less than a thousand fancy numbers that are usually classified as golden, diamond and platinum. A golden number sometimes can be secured by paying just Rs 1,000 whereas platinum numbers cost nothing less than Rs 1 lakh. If the mobile number’s last five digits (or six in some cases) are 0, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 they command a price of over Rs 2 lakh each, while numbers like 12345, 23456, 34567, 45678, 56789 also fetch similar sums for cell companies.
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