Nizi Bahandari, CEO of Freedom Calls protests Changes to Optus $99 plan * Christmas Eve.
Nizi Bahandari, CEO of Freedom Calls was interviewed for an article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald today. The SMH is a widely circulated Australian newspaper.
This is a summary of the article. To read the entire article click HERE.
Optus Makes it Harder to Call Home by Georgina Robinson December 27 2008
Optus sent a text message to their customers this week to the effect that they would no longer be able to pay local mobile-to-mobile rates for services that use the internet to make overseas phone calls. They then cut off access to cheap international mobile telephone calls on Christmas Eve.
Customers have been outraged when the move forced at least two businesses that had offered the service to remove it from Optus customers on Christmas Eve, just as many were preparing to call family and friends overseas.
Many students need to call their home countries regularly and it affects them because as one student said “I have to pay $100 per month on my phone contract but now I have to spend more on using a calling card.”
Consumers have been flocking to companies recently that offer VOIP technology which redirects national mobile calls overseas at no extra cost to the customer.
Telstra, Vodafone and Three all allow their customers to use the VOIP services but Optus notified its pre-paid mobile users that they would now be charged at international rates of 29c a minute.
Nizi Bahandari, from Freedom Calls, one of the businesses offering the VOIP service said Optus was effectively overcharging customers for calls that did not cost the company anything extra. “We’re not using the Optus network” Mr Bahandari said. “They just want customers to pay the premium international rates.”
An Optus spokeswoman said she could not comment on whether the service was costing Optus more than the cost of a national mobile-to-mobile call. But she said the pricing change was in line with the terms and conditions of its timeless and cap plans, which exclude international calls.
But Mr Bahandari said Optus should not be applying international call rates to telephone calls made over the internet and on another network. “The number that customers call is on a Vodafone network and Vodafone are paid a termination fee by the other networks” he said.
The decision has cut Freedom Calls traffic by 50 per cent because most customers had signed up to Optus plans in the belief they could use the mobile-to-VOIP services.
Mr Bahandari said. “Optus is trying to conquer the market by having a really good plan with a good offer but suddenly they’re changing the offer by saying it’s not to their benefit because customers are using it for VOIP calling. It’s the wrong thing to do.”
Nizi Bahandari was also interviewed for another article that will be published at http://apcmag.com
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