Network providers should think upon decreasing the cost of SMS instead of complaining about missed calls. It would give them the opportunity to monetise as well as free up the network to some extent.
And as for the 'missed call' culture, it's either used mostly by students or the poor peoples (a bitter truth of most Indians), in either of the case, it is mostly likely that none of them uses smart phones that can handle applications as mentioned in the comments here.
SMS expanded from "minimal messaging that utilised slack space in the system" to "primary use of the system for many people".
There could and should be a way to get free, minimal messaging, sent as the system has free space, working. That could be used alongside modern sms and mms systems.
And as for the 'missed call' culture, it's either used mostly by students or the poor peoples (a bitter truth of most Indians), in either of the case, it is mostly likely that none of them uses smart phones that can handle applications as mentioned in the comments here.