Vodafone turns up heat in mobile war

By PAUL BRISLEN

Cellphone giant Vodafone has fired a shot across rival Telecom's bows with its newly announced business user plan called talkZoneZero.

Corporate customers will be allowed to make calls to other mobiles in the same company for free as part of Vodafone's push to eliminate the land line from offices.

Vodafone's director of business markets, Russell Stanners, says the move is the most significant change to the company's business plans since the company launched.

"Our message is simple: the mobile is the one phone you need."

Customers pay up to $49 plus GST a month for each person on the plan and then can call other team members' cellphones in New Zealand without additional charges.

Stanners said the plan also allows customers to nominate frequently called numbers which will then be billed at a flat rate of 15c a minute. Additional frequently called numbers can be added for a monthly $8.95 plus GST for each number.

Telecom announced its new plan, BusinessTime, last month.

Customers will pay no more than 50c plus GST for national calls up to an hour long and $1 plus GST for calls to a Telecom mobile phone for up to an hour. Customers will still pay a monthly line rental fee, however the new pricing is significantly lower than Telecom's previous business offerings.

Telecom and Vodafone are launching new cellphone networks that promise to deliver faster connection speeds. Telecom's network launched this week and Vodafone's will kick off early next year.