1 - 7 March 2001

Vodafone introduces Eurocall, but not in Malta

Vodafone Group Plc has just introduced an innovative service called Eurocall. This new service makes the use of mobile phones when travelling across Europe simple, transparent and better value. Customers using Eurocall will be charged a single rate when making and receiving calls within Europe on any Vodafone partner network in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, or the United Kingdom.
Available to over 70 million mobile customers in Europe, Eurocall is the first Pan-European branded service to be introduced by Vodafone. It will become operational in each of the countries by March 2001.
However, the new service will not be available to Maltese Vodafone users because local international call tariffs are too high.
Vodafone Malta managing director, Joseph C. Grioli, said: “The
current international call tariff offered to us by Maltacom is too high to allow us to offer the same rate. This will become possible when Vodafone Malta will be able to offer international calls throughout its own
gateway as from 1 January 2003.”
Customers using Eurocall will receive a single rate charge of Eur0.80 per minute when making calls on their mobile phones on Vodafone partner networks to any country within western Europe1. This simple system gives customers the ability to always know what a call costs before they make it.
Eurocall replaces the current system where roaming prices can depend on the time of day, home network of the customer, visited network, and destination of the call within Europe.
Currently a customer can face over 10,000 possible roaming tariffs for making calls. Eurocall customers will also be given a simplified tariff for calls received while roaming.