A missed call is a telephone call that is deliberately terminated by the caller before being answered by its intended recipient, appearing as a "missed call" on the receiver's cellphone. It is commonly used in South Asia, the Philippines and Africa as a way of communicating pre-agreed messages for free. For example, a group of friends may agree that two missed calls in succession means "I am running late".

In Bangladesh, missed calls make up 70% of cellular network traffic at any given time.

Missed call codes:

• Friends misscall a member of their group who was unable join them that evening to convey "we're missing you".
• In Syria, five missed calls in rapid succession means "I am online, let's chat".
• In Bhutan, farmers know how much milk their customers want by the number of missed calls they get.
• In India, a missed call from a shop or business means "Your order is ready". [Source: Wikipedia]