No bull: Red Bull Mobile offers unlimited calls to 1300 and 1800 numbers

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 07 September 2011 17:08

Your IT - Mobility

Red Bull has revealed prices for the prepaid mobile service it will launch later this month on the Vodafone network, and its offers are likely to be warmly welcomed: unlike many mobile 'bundles' calls to 1300 and 1800 numbers are included.

Red Bull announced plans for Red Bull Mobile last month, saying it would offer Red Bull branded handsets, multimedia services and unlimited access to Red Bull TV and the World of Red Bull along with exclusive ticket offers to both Red Bull and partner events. The service will go live on 29 September and full details of services and prices are now available at http://www.redbullmobile.com.au.

There are five recharge options: $10, $20, $39, $75 and $365 on, respectively, 7, 15, 30, 60 and 365 day expiry. Included data quotas are 0.75, 1.5, 4 and 8GB on the shorter term recharges and 5GB per month on the 365 day option. All recharges included unlimited standard national calls, mobile calls, national MMS and SMS, 1300 and 1800 calls and voicemail deposit and retrieval.

The Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) has been a strident critic of mobile operators for excluding calls to 1300 and 1800 numbers from their bundles, and charging quite substantial per minute rates for these calls.

Earlier this year ACCAN launched a campaign under the banner of 'Number Woman' aimed at getting mobile operators to reduce or eliminate separate charging for calls to these numbers.

Number Woman was ACCAN's second major initiative aimed at reducing the cost of calls to 13 and 1800 numbers from mobiles. Last September it joined forces with The Australian Financial Counselling and Credit Reform Association (AFCCRA) and The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) to lodge a submission with the ACMA.

The three bodies couched their submission to ACMA in the form of a 'Super Complaint' - a concept borrowed from the UK, where it is enshrined in legislation requiring the recipient organisation to fast track its response and publish a reasoned response within 90 days of receipt. However that concept does not exist in the Australian regulatory regime.

If Red Bull Mobile can offer unlimited calls to standard numbers, and to 1300 and 1800 numbers along with 4GB of data for $39 on a 30 day expiry the arguments mounted by other providers against being able to include 1300 and 1800 calls in their bundles start to look very thin.