2degrees ‘Fights for Fair-dinkum’ – calls & texts to Australia at no extra cost

Keeping in touch with family and friends across the ditch just got a whole lot easier for 2degrees’ customers who can now call and text Australia on their mobiles at no extra cost.

From today, all 2degrees Pay Monthly and Prepay Plus Combo and business customers can use their included minutes and ‘All You Need’ texts to call any landline or mobile in Australia.*

Chief Marketing Officer Malcolm Phillipps says kiwis make more than 600 million minutes of calls to Australia every year, yet they haven’t used their mobiles to make a lot of these calls as prices are as high as 91c per minute on competitor networks – that has the potential to cost Kiwi’s millions every year, just to keep connected.

“You can now call a landline or mobile in Perth with your included 2degrees minutes for the same price as a call to Palmerston North. With 650,000 kiwi expats living in Australia and many companies doing business across the Tasman, it is time to change the market again,” says Mr Phillipps.

“We know 73% of New Zealanders have friends and family living in Australia and of those, 86% regularly keep in touch. Now, kiwis can talk and text friends and family in both countries on their 2degrees mobile, with confidence there are no additional costs.”

Mr Phillipps says mobile is now the key tool for home and business life.

“With Australia becoming part of the NZ calling package via 2degrees mobile, you really would have to question the need for a home phone, with its monthly line charge plus high per minute charges for calling across the Tasman.”

“It certainly makes sense for people to now use their mobile to keep in touch with loved ones and even more sense for kiwi companies who regularly do business across the Tasman.”

One such kiwi company is Stray Ltd, an adventure travel agency which says this initiative will make a real difference to both its business and people.

“It’s critical we have effective communication tools to speak with Australia for our entire business given a large source of our business is from Australia. To have the ability to call Australia from my, or one of our many company mobiles anywhere, anytime at no extra cost is the ultimate flexibility. Not only is this a direct tool for the company but an advantage that extends to our crew who all have 2degrees phones. It will give us the competitive edge to offer a complete package to staff which will also benefit their personal lives. What I really admire about 2degrees is that this would typically only be offered to new connections by other Telco’s - but with 2degrees it’s a little bit different.” Brett Hudson, Stray Ltd.

*Conditions:

• PrepayPlus and Pay Monthly customers will now have the same out of bundle rate for calling Australian and New Zealand mobiles and landlines (as applicable).The out of bundle rate for calling Australia landlines and mobiles remains the same for Prepay Plus and Pay monthly customers
• Aussie inclusions are available on all legacy and Carryover Plans
• Aussie inclusions are only available on Prepay Plus Carryover Minute Combo, Carryover Chat 200 and Carryover Chat 60 packs
• Aussie calls and text are not available on Prepay Standard Value Packs. However customers can migrate to Prepay Plus to take advantage of the initiative
• The Aussie Talk & Text Pack which is currently available on Pay Monthly and Business will be disabled from 7th June 2013. Customers with this Pack will be notified and any recurring packs will be stopped.