Many mobile phone plans offer free calls to other customers on the same network. But just how do you keep track of which network your contacts use?
Picture by Karl Barron
Optus has introduced a special call tone/message for customers using its Dollar Days prepaid plan. If they ring a customer on another network, they hear the tone (you can listen to it here as an MP3). It’s an interesting solution, but not an ideal one: if you were only planning to make the call if it was free and you don’t hear that message, you’d have to hang up in a rather rude hurry.
Vodafone and 3 offer the Who2Call application to identify other users on those networks, which is handy, though the information is only updated weekly. Another option would be to keep a note on your phone contacts of who uses ‘your’ network. But in practice, I suspect lots of people take advantage of the free calls with a handful of friends and family, and otherwise treat it as a useful and unexpected bonus.
Which approach do you use to make sure you get the best value from free calling on the same network? Tell us in the comments.
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