After the 3 Mobile and Vodafone merger, 3 has now decided to follow Vodafone and introduce additional fees for calling re-routed services like ours. The fees that 3 are charging to call our access numbers are nearly the same as the ones that Vodafone is charging. Please note however that it is still significantly cheaper to make an international call through our service compared to direct dialing Internationally through your 3 mobile plan. If you are on a contract or prepaid standard calling plan (for instance the $20 to $55 cap plans) with 3, you are now going to be charged $1.20 per minute plus a $0.35 flagfall for each call you make to our access numbers. This is included as part of your cap value for most plans. Checking the 3 website, we could not find a contract or prepaid plan that excluded this from your cap value. Since a typical Australian mobile call on these plans costs $0.90 with a $0.35 flagfall, you can see how our service is still a better deal even with these extra fees added. If you are on an unlimited calling plan, you are now going to be charged $0.60 per minute plus a $0.35 flagfall. This will not be included in your cap value and you will have to pay these additional fees as a separate item on your monthly bill. This is not a good a deal as before but it still much better than directly dialing overseas with your 3 Mobile. If you are a 3 Mobile customer and still want to use our service, we recommend that you read 3’s website or contact them if you have any questions regarding how they are going to charge you. Unfortunately, we have no control over their pricing for calling our access numbers, and their terms may be subject to change.

As at 7/27/2010, Vodafone is playing the following message when their customers call some of our access numbers:

“The number you have dialed is a re-routed call service. Depending on your plan you may be charged higher rates for this call unless you hang up now. Visit vodafone.com.au for more information on re-routed calls.”

Unfortunately, this warning is not played on all our access numbers but we do not have any control of what is said or which access numbers this warning is played on. It is really unfortunate because in the announcement what Vodafone does not say is which customers are affected and how they are affected. If you are on the Unlimited Cap Plan , Vodafone is excluding our service from your “unlimited minutes” and charging you a $0.35 flag fall and $0.60 per 30 seconds to call our access numbers outside of your cap. This is still a savings over their $2.40 per minute charge for international direct dialling, but a material change in their service. If you are a Vodafone Standard Cap Plan customer (someone on a $19 to $79 a month cap plan), then the cost to call our service is $1.20 per minute plus a $0.35 flag fall but these costs are included within your monthly cap value . This is a slight surcharge over a standard mobile rate to call which is a $0.35 flag fall and $0.90 cents per minute, but still a significant savings versus international direct dialling.

Standard Cap Plan customers should realize that because of the bizarre mathematics of Australian mobile plan pricing, you are most likely paying much less to call us through your included cap plan value than the fees listed above. If you are an older Standard Cap Plan customer, you may not be charged this extra $0.30 per minute at all because the concept of extra fees for re-routed calls did not exist when you signed up for Vodafone. We believe this was introduced in August 2009, but are not positive.

For all of our Vodafone customers, if you have any doubts about what it will cost you to call OziCall from your Vodafone plan, please contact them and ask. We have no control over what they choose to charge you, so you need to speak with Vodafone directly. If you want this information from the horse’s mouth, please visit Vodafone’s rerouted call page . Being a large and confusing telco, that page won’t answer all of your questions clearly, but it is a starting point.

We are obviously disappointed that Vodafone has chosen to set apart some Australian mobile numbers and charge some of their customers extra for calling them. We are particularly disappointed that they have decided to do this to us, and will take action through the appropriate channels much like we have done with Optus. We encourage our affected users to voice their displeasure with Vodafone directly and by taking the matter to the ACCC . If possible, see if Vodafone will allow you to change from the Unlimited Cap to one that includes our service as part of its standard mobile billing rates.