Alltel to Speak at the ACCAN National Conference

Online, September 5, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Alltel Pty Ltd (www.alltel.com.au), a leading provider of telecommunications solutions to Australian businesses, will be speaking at the ACCAN National Conference in Sydney this week.

"Alltel is an active supporter of ACCAN's Fair Calls for All campaign," said Jacqui Johnson, Alltel's Marketing Manager. "We'd like to see calls made to 1800, 1300 and 13 numbers charged at the same rate from both mobiles and landlines."

Fair Calls for All is ACCAN's public campaign to fight for fair rates for mobile calls to 1800, 1300 and 13 numbers.

When dialled from a landline, 1800 numbers are free calls and 13 and 1300 numbers are the cost of a local call. Any costs associated with these call are paid by the business/service provider offering these numbers as a convenient and affordable way for their customers to contact them.

When dialled from a mobile phone, however, call costs range from $0.15 to $1.78 a minute with a $0.15 to $0.39 call connection charge. Many plans do not include 13/1300/1800 numbers in their caps, so these calls are often a nasty surprise that comes on top of people's monthly plan fees!

"Alltel's customers are businesses who want to provide free-call or local-cost phone numbers to make it easy and affordable for their own customers to contact them," said Johnson. "When you consider that the businesses offering these numbers are already paying for the calls, it's hard to understand how some mobile carriers justify the high rates they charge their own customers."

"With the rapid growth in mobile subscriptions and many migrating to mobile-only environments, these high call rates are hurting many Australian businesses. And this is at a time when we should be doing everything we can to help local businesses grow and succeed," said Johnson. "So in saying we need fair calls for all, we say that it's not just the callers who are being penalised, but also the many Australian businesses that use 13/1300 and 1800 numbers."

Jacqui Johnson will be speaking as part of the panel at the Fair Calls for All workshop on Thursday, September 8. You can find out more about the ACCAN National Conference at http://accan.org.au/conference