From Monday, an Irish company offering mobile telephony services plans to offer mobile phone users significant discounts on their bills. VIP On-line says it will charge 20 pence per minute for calls anywhere within the Republic at all times. It will also offer calls to Britain, Australia, Japan, the USA and western Europe for 25 pence per minute at peak times.
This compares with Eircell's 80 pence per minute charge on its Ready To Go service, and Esat's 75 pence a minute charge on the Speakeasy service.
The VIP On-line service will also be based on the pay-as-you-go model. Users can purchase five, 10 or 20 call cards initially through Brightsavers' newsagents which has nine outlets. By dialling a special freephone number the card's details will be automatically logged via the Internet to VIP's offices. The information is then routed to a switching location in Washington, which automatically calls back the customer with a dial tone. Mr Luke Rafferty, director of VIP On-Line, says the entire process takes between two and five seconds.
