Cheap calls under Telecom subscription business plan

By PAUL BRISLEN

Just days after TelstraClear launched its residential phone plans, Telecom has announced changes to its business calling plans aimed at the small to medium company.

Businesstime is a subscription-based service that allows small businesses to make toll calls to landlines within Australia and New Zealand for no more than 50 cents an hour or calls to Telecom mobile phones for $1 an hour.

These capped rates replaced peak and off-peak calls and stemmed from the same philosophy that led to Telecom's changes in the retail market with its Anytime plans, said Telecom's general manager of wired, Rod Snodgrass.

"Customers' needs are changing and we want to change with them to give them more certainty."

Snodgrass said the move to a capped rate would help those in business, particularly small business, to better manage their calling costs.

"Businesstime is about certainty, about being able to just pick up the phone and call someone without worrying about how much it's going to cost." The service was subscription based (customers pay a monthly fee of $51.95 excluding GST) but Snodgrass said there was no minimum term and no contract involved.

"They just ring up 126 or go to the Telecom website."

Snodgrass said Telecom would be extending the service in the months ahead.