Dan Warne30 August 2007, 3:58 AM
VoIP telco GoTalk has launched a VoIP plan that solves the biggest bugbear of Australian internet telephony users -- the high cost of calls to mobiles.
VoIP telco GoTalk has launched a VoIP plan that solves the biggest bugbear of Australian internet telephony users -- the high cost of calls to mobiles.
GoTalk's new "Aussie pack" $14.95 plan includes unlimited calls to landlines nationally, and Australian mobiles on all networks. It also includes a geographic landline number for incoming calls.
Other VoIP providers typically charge 22c - 30c per minute for calls to mobiles, because there is no way for them to reduce this cost due to the high termination rates charged by Australian mobile networks.
GoTalk did not elaborate on how it is avoiding these mobile network termination charges, though there are two possibilities: GoTalk may be routing calls outside of Australia (for example, to a gateway in the United States) and back in to Australia again, which provides lower call rates than originating the call from within Australia (but lower call quality). Or it may simply be playing a game of averages in the hope that the volume of calls to mobiles across all customers will average out to a manageable level.
GoTalk says a "fair use policy" applies to the plan: if you exceed 300 local calls or 300 national calls or 100 calls to mobiles or 1,000 minutes to mobiles, the company reserves the right to suspend your service. However, these limits are fairly generous -- the limits are certainly high enough to accommodate the needs of most households and small businesses.
GoTalk CEO Steve Picton said he was issuing a challenge to all VoIP service providers operating in the Australia and New Zealand -- including dominant international market leader Skype - to beat gotalk's new plan
"From today, gotalk has the only VoIP plan in Australia from which you can make unlimited calls from your PC or VoIP phone to local, national and mobiles," he said.
"Other telcos, such as Optus Fusion do offer unlimited calls, but to Optus mobiles only, which can be quite confusing as it is almost impossible for a customer to know if the call he or she is making is to another Optus mobile.
"This is why gotalk has launched the "go VoIP Aussie Pack" to include unlimited calls to all Australian mobiles, without restriction" Picton said.
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