Calling overseas is a lot cheaper today than what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. When I was a child all you had was Telstra and whatever it decided to charge for calling family overseas. Even 5 years ago we only hd a handful of prepaid mobile providers who really concentrated on cheap international call rates. Today the situation is rather different. It might have taken Optus, Vodafone and Telstra a few years to wake up but wake up they have with some very competitive prepaid mobile offerings when it comes to calling overseas from your mobile phone.
I mean who would have ever thought that you could call China for oc/min today with only the flagfall to pay. What has happened is that the Telco’s have awoken to the fact that Australia is once again filling up with migrant students, singles and families who whilst enjoying their time in Australia, have a need to connect with their families back at home.
With age of the mobile phone and the requirement to stay connected as often as you can, they really had no choice but to chase this market. The challenge now is that they are all chasing it. Two years ago you had gotalk and Lebara mobile, then gradually Hello, Lyca and then the big guns joined. Now even the likes of Amaysim boasts about its international call rates.
The beauty of prepaid mobile plans however is that you aren’t tied into any contract and so, if the promotional rate that drove you to the prepaid plan has ended and you don’t want to stay with that provider any longer, you can simply swap to another.
Who is the cheapest prepaid mobile international call rate provider for a 10 minute call to:
- China – Optus Connect 4 Less with 0c/min + 23c flagfall
- India – LycaMobile with 0c/min + 29c flagfall
- Indonesia – Hello Mobile at 1.5c/min + 35c flagfall
- Thailand – Lebara Mobile at 0c/min + 29c flagfall
- UK – Crazy Johns Flat Chat with 1c/min + 10c flagfall
- USA - Crazy Johns Flat Chat with 3c/min + 10c flagfall
- New Zealand – Optus Connect 4 Less at 3c/min + 23c flagfall
