Airtel unveils call assist feature

Telecoms provider, Airtel Nigeria, has unveiled a new service called “Call Assist”; a new phone call management Value Added Service (VAS) specially designed for the convenience of top corporate and business executives.

With the Call Assist service, customers with very busy schedules can transfer calls from their phones to designated assistants who will take messages on their behalf when they are busy and cannot take calls.

The assistant can either be a secretary, personal assistant, family member or anyone preferred by the customer.

To sign up for the service, customers can subscribe by sending *464# to the short code 38464 and will be charged N750 per month irrespective of service class or tariff plan.

While speaking on the product, ‎Vice President: Segments, Usage and Retention, Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh, noted that the new service offers busy executives the flexibility and freedom to manage incoming calls for them while at social functions or in very serious meetings where it might be difficult to receive calls.

Customers can also choose to unsubscribe at any point by sending ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ to 38464.
There is also the option of restricting the service to work only week days (Monday to Friday, from 8am to 5pm) and in that case, the customer can subscribe by sending “ON WD” to 38464, and unsubscribe by sending “OFF WD” to same number.
If customers desire to white-list or privatize a number, such that only their phones ring when such numbers call, they would be required to send ‘PRIVATE’ (and the number e.g. 0708XXXXXXX) to 38464.