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Vodafone - FREE Calls/SMS to Philippines (until 30 November)

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It's Vodafone's turn to help out their postpaid customers seeking information about family and friends in the Philippines affected by last week's disaster.

Lifted from the blog:
We don't want our customers worrying about the costs when calling and TXTing the Philippines, so we'll be crediting the cost of all standard calls and TXTs for our postpaid customers to the Philippines from Australia between the 11th and 30th November 2013.

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closed Comments

  • +9

    Vodafone's the last to do it, what a surprise

    • -1

      wonder if they will back credit calls prior to the 11th

    • +11

      Late better than never

    • +9

      "Vodafone Foundation Instant Network - an initiative of Vodafone Group Foundation - has been deployed in the Philippines to enable humanitarian workers to carry out life-saving work and provide people to help locate loved ones following the catastrophic typhoon.

      Internationally, Vodafone engineers from Hungary and New Zealand traveled to the Philippines last weekend to deploy two Vodafone Foundation instant networks to Palo, a region 15km south of Tacloban. The portable network, which fits in to four suitcases, weighs 100kg and can be transported on commercial flights, was transported to the country within 24 hours of the typhoon hitting."

      Frankly, this is more important that Australians getting free calls to the Philippines. Besides, whats the point of free calls if the telecommunication infrastructure in the affected areas are down?

      • -3

        They had trouble getting reception, dont hate them!

      • whats the point of free calls if the telecommunication infrastructure in the affected areas are down?

        Firstly, the typhoon affected quite a vast area, some areas were obviously hit very hard, at the same time there were large areas that sustained only mild damage. Not all communications in all areas are down.

        Secondly, some people may have friends and relatives that live in the vicinity of where the typhoon hit (but not directly affected by the typhoon) and may want reassurance that they are okay.

        Thirdly, if they can't get through to friends and relatives in the affected areas, they may know other people who live close to the affected areas or even in a completely different part of the country who may have helpful information.

        Fourthly, at this time there is a lot of activity occurring throughout the country focused on helping the affected areas. For example there is a lot of money being sent by family and friends and others to the Philippines at the moment to help people in the affected areas. The money may be sent to family, friends or organisations in different parts of the country.

    • +1

      wonder if these telcos will keep doing this for every other countries affected by natural disasters, not just philippines.

    • That's because they HAVE to, not that they really wanted to in the first place.

      Typical, typical.

  • -4

    I can't wait to move to a provider that has coverage. I want customer service (and reasonable fees, and…) as well but then I'd be asking too much.

    Whining aside, it's good to see that Vodagroan customers can call the Philippines charge free.

  • +2

    Here we go again. This site is resembling a stage for a beauty contest among the Telcos.
    Cast your vote.

    • +4

      instead of saying "well telstra were first and now everyone else is copying the idea" just say thanks, because these people are losing money to give people here access to find family and friends affected by this terrible tragedy.

      while it isn't a bargain, it is something people need to know - without knowing calls were free, some without much money might not make many calls or make any at all. Now being free, they can try and locate family / friends and find out what is happening. Which i'm sure given the large Filipino population in this country is a huge price these providers are losing out on.

      they could of used this moment to generate hundreds and thousands of dollars in international calls and texts but they instead gave it for free.

      and Voda got the portable mobile network there within 24hrs.

  • +25

    Voda actually did it before telstra, it just took 4 days to upload via their 3g

    • lol

    • Lol. So I suppose calls you make wont get to Philippines until 1 Dec?

    • Best. Comment. This year!

      • I highly doubt that!

  • So does this mean it's free calls to any number in Philippines, whether it's in the affected area or Manila (non affected area) I would assume so as people may have moved since the disaster.

    Also, are the calls free to any number, landline and mobile? The details are a little vague on the website.

    • -5

      does this say free calls to the Philippines or does it say free calls to somewhere else?

      pick up a map and look for Philippines. "free calls/sms" to that place.

      how is a company being vague by stating that calls to an entire country and SMS are FREE?

      that's about as non vague as it gets buddy

      • +2

        Well, that's a bit defensive. It was a genuine question with no hostility attached, until you came in.

        • Just call the Philippines for free already.

        • -5

          the reason T&C's are so long on everything you use these days is because of stupid people

  • Good on the telcos for doing this

  • -2

    Limited reception & call drops…. Waiting for my contract to finish.

  • ha! so i was right!

    mrgeckoz on 12/11/2013 - 15:21
    Vodafone gonna be the next??

    http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/122578

    • +4

      Since you're on a roll, would you mind PM'ing me the Powerball numbers for tomorrow? :)

      • I'd really love to, but thats unethical!
        =P

  • -4

    alright

  • "We don't want our customers worrying about the costs when calling and TXTing the Philippines, so we'll be crediting the cost of all standard calls and TXTs for our postpaid customers to the Philippines from Australia between the 11th and 30th November 2013."

    Well thats cheap. Nothing at all for their prepaid customers :(

  • +1

    Voda is awesome!!

    • Fuzor your drunk, go home.

  • -1

    Didn't bother posting…because its Vodafone lol!

    • Glad I bothered posting this, such a shame it's only Vodafone for you even the deal is for a good cause - could have been another badge on your profile LOL.

  • Be very careful about this. I rang Vodafone today and the person on the other end of the phone in India knew nothing about this. I gave her the website but she said she couldn't access it from there. She said it wasn't on the official Vodafone website. They said they would get back to me but haven't. Just ring Vodafone and get the name of the person on the other end of the phone who is confirming that you can get free calls to the Philippines until Nov. 30. At least then you have got some protection if Vodafone hit you with a huge bill.

    • I believe some of the customer service ain't professional.

  • Thanks VF.

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