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freitasm

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#9715 7-Oct-2006 21:16
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I've got a letter in the mail last week explaining that Ztalk will be changing from a 15 minute billing to a per minute billing. If you don't know, Ztalk is TelstraClear's long distance (international and national) calling plans.

Once you subscribe your phone number (Telecom, or any other landline) you will have the option to dial 0505 in front of any other number, thus selecting Ztalk as the carrier. They also provide you (or they did when I enrolled years ago, not sure now) wit a calling card and a 0800 number you can call locally (and from overseas!) and have the call charged to your account.

I have been using this for years now. The only problem I found is that while overseas I can dial the TelstraClear number but can't use it to "trombone" a call to another overseas number - it's only available to New Zealand national calls if you are outside the country.

Anyway, back to the topic. The letter. It explained that an attached sheet would have all the new rates. There was no attached sheet though. I logged a request on-line and received a nice reply from their customer services saying that a new letter would be sent to me. I got it today (good service there!)

The new calling plan is now billed on a minute basis, while it was on 15 minute basis. Also the previous plan had a 15 second free starter period, which is now gone. Looking at the prices though the costs will be reduced.

Previously calling Australia, US or the UK would cost $1.99/15 minutes. Now it will be charged at $.10/minute, so it's coming down to $1.50/15 minutes. Not bad.

Calls to New Zealand mobile are coming to $.45/minute, down from $.59/minute (mobile calls were always billed by the minute). again, not bad, but you might be better off using some of your mobile plans for this.

The surprise is the increase in price for New Zealand landline calls. Those are going up from $.99/15 minutes to $.10/minute (or $1.50/15 minutes). An increase, yes, but still cheaper than the TelstraClear Residential Plans.

Also interesting is this note on the bottom of the sheet: "0505 Ztalk access is not available to TelstraClear cable network customers". What? I've been using this for years. Or is this only supposed to be available to Telecom customers?

Ooops. I guess now TelstraClear is going to remove my Ztalk account.

Trivia: the most expensive place to call with Ztalk is St Helena, at $2/minute.






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sbiddle
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  #47870 7-Oct-2006 21:59
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ztalk was never supposed to be available for on network customers in the first place. You did well to get it!






paradoxsm
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  #47884 7-Oct-2006 22:51
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How funny, I was discussing the pro's and con's and even to marketing tricks of this ztalk's 15 minute rounding rates just today!

Good to see the rates have gone per minute rather than "watch the clock!" Nice prices too!

lchiu7
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  #47890 8-Oct-2006 07:14
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freitasm:

The new calling plan is now billed on a minute basis, while it was on 15 minute basis. Also the previous plan had a 15 second free starter period, which is now gone. Looking at the prices though the costs will be reduced.

Previously calling Australia, US or the UK would cost $1.99/15 minutes. Now it will be charged at $.10/minute, so it's coming down to $1.50/15 minutes. Not bad.


I hve been on ztalk ever since I started up with TCL. The new rates for me are not so good. For example you used to be able to call Hong Kong for 99c/15 minutes. (and China). Now it's 10c/minute so it's gone up to $1.50. For me it's now cheaper to use those calling cards.

As for being able to call NZ numbers from overseas using a calling card. I have been doing that for years using a Clear Card.

And for Ztalk not being available for TCL Network Customers - I puzzled over that statement also since I am a TCL network customer and as I noted, have been one for years.




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.




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#47893 8-Oct-2006 08:42
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Technicaly Ztalk isnt available to Cable customers, however you can open a second account and have ztalk tolls billed on that, problem solved

lchiu7
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  #47894 8-Oct-2006 08:57
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Avenger: Technicaly Ztalk isnt available to Cable customers, however you can open a second account and have ztalk tolls billed on that, problem solved


That explains why I have it. My Ztalk account is not attached to my main TCL account. So I have 3 different accounts with TCL and so 3 bills each month (Ztalk, main TCL and a dialup Clearnet account I use only for global roaming)




Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD.  https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd  PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.


freitasm

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#47898 8-Oct-2006 10:09
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Yes, Hong Kong, Singapore seems to be the destination where costs went up.





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sbiddle
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  #47899 8-Oct-2006 10:31
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lchiu7:
Avenger: Technicaly Ztalk isnt available to Cable customers, however you can open a second account and have ztalk tolls billed on that, problem solved


That explains why I have it. My Ztalk account is not attached to my main TCL account. So I have 3 different accounts with TCL and so 3 bills each month (Ztalk, main TCL and a dialup Clearnet account I use only for global roaming)


ztalk was on the Clear billing system but TCL on network customers were on the old Saturn billing system so it couldn't be added to the same account. When TCL were promoting ztalk a few years ago it featured small print saying it wasn't available to on network customers but you could obviosly get it if you had a seperate Clear account.






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