Vodafone mouths off on new mobile deal

By PETER GRIFFIN

Vodafone is standardising its international mobile calling rates and introducing a bulk text messaging plan as it ups competitive pressure on Telecom and faces a regualatory probe of its pricing.

The mobile player, which controls just over half of the local market, has introduced the "Motormouth" deal which lets its account and pre-paid 021 customers call mobiles in the UK, Ireland, Canda, the US and Australia for a flat-rate price of 49c per minute, 24 hours a day. Previously only off-peak calls could be made for that rate.

Vodafone hasn't been generous enough to up its 200 free minute allowance, but account customers stumping up with the $40 a month Motormouth subscription fee will get 200 free text messages a month - up from just 20.

That will see Vodafone go some way to counter the 500 text messages for $10 a month deal Telecom has in the market.

Vodafone's general manager for consumer marketing, Hamish Wilkie, said the new texting allowance would meet the needs of most high-use texters.

"It's dangerous working on averages, but 200 text messages for a lot our on account customers should certainly cover most of their needs," he said.

The bulk of Vodafone's account customers were on the Get 200, $30 a month plan, said Wilkie. Whether they would get value out of stumping up an extra $10 a month would depend on the amount of texting and peak-time calling they did.

"For most of those customers, this would be an attractive offering," said Wilkie.

"It's $120 worth of value in there."

Vodafone customers generally pay 99c a minute for peak-time calling during the day, crossing to the new plan, they would pay only 49c a minute, 24 hours a day.

As far as international calling was concerned, Wilkie said the price reshuffle was to make it easier for customers to understand international calling plans.

"A lot of us have friends and family offshore, so it's encouraging people to keep in touch and use their mobiles to do that."

Traditionally, calls placed to mobiles in those other five countries during peak hours would cost $1.39 a minute.

Calls to other countries cost $1.99 but are reduced to $1.39 on the Motormouth deal.

While the deal makes mobile to mobile calls more attractive, the country's telcos still face a Commerce Commission probe over fixed line to mobile pricing, which is high in New Zealand by global standards.