24 July 2008
Call overseas on your mobile from 5c a minute
Thanks to new phone card called V8Ô, international mobile calls can now cost as little as 5 cents a minute, when made
from a Vodafone mobile in NZ.
The innovative phone card, powered by Compass Communications, not only offers big savings when calling overseas on a
Vodafone mobile, it's also incredibly easy-to-use.
With a V8 phone card in hand, you merely need to dial 449 from your Vodafone mobile to get to the V8 card platform,
enter a PIN, then enter the overseas number. At the first use, you can tell the V8 service to remember your mobile
number, so you never have to re-enter your V8 PIN – meaning cheap overseas calls are just three digits away.
There are no Vodafone charges when you dial 449, you only pay V8 rates from when your international call connects.
V8 was developed by Compass Communications, and the general manager of its consumer division, Dave Georgetti, says it’s
an incredibly cost-effective way for people to make international calls from their Vodafone mobile.
Each call incurs a 19 cent ‘flagfall’ at the start, and then costs 5c a minute to more than 30 countries. Other
countries cost between 7c and $1.19 per minute, with a full list of rates available at www.v8phonecard.co.nz.
A 30 minute call to the UK will cost $1.69, a fifteen minute chat to someone in India $2.44, or an hour long call to the
USA $3.19, no matter what time of the
Georgetti says: “With a V8 card from the local dairy, supermarket or convenience store, people can now easily call
friends and family while they are on the go, from their Vodafone mobile in NZ, at very little cost.”
Georgetti says the simplicity of using the cards makes them far more attractive than previous systems that required
people to type in long strings of digits to access low rates.
By following instructions that come with the V8 card, callers can add credit anywhere the card is sold as well as over
the phone.
Georgetti says he expects V8 to have wide appeal – from mums and dads who have children off on their OE, to
international students, migrants and even tourists who buy a Vodafone NZ SIM card for their phone.
“Now you don’t need to wait until you get home or to a computer to stay in touch with people overseas. What’s more, it’s
so cheap – you can chat to a mate in the UK for half an hour for $1.69, and that is just amazing.”
ends