Rely on Vodafone for your business calls? This might be of interest.
Vodafone's new Red Grow Business mobile plans are aimed at small businesses, and allow inclusions to be shared among your team.
The starting point for Red Grow Business is any of three voice options.
- $50 per month buys a SIM-only plan, with "infinite" standard national calls and standard SMSes to local and overseas numbers, plus 300 international minutes to 20 countries including China, India, New Zealand, Singapore, UK and USA. You also get 3GB of data.
- The $70 plan is basically the same as the $50 one, but it includes a 4G handset - we couldn't find the list of available models, but officials did say that it includes the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5.
- An extra $60 (ie, $130 per month) doubles the number of international minutes to 600 and increases the data allowance to 10GB.
The inclusions can be used in 47 countries for an extra $5 per day per phone.
If you use your entire data allocation, Vodafone will automatically top it up in 1GB increments for $10 a time - so there's still the possibility of the dreaded 'bill shock' even if not to the same extent as can happen with traditional plans with swingeing rates for excess data - or you can purchase additional data blocks at $180 for 20GB, $300 for 50GB, or $500 for 100GB.
Each of these three plans allows the data and international minutes to be pooled across all the associated handsets. If you want to add tablets or wireless modems to the data pool, that can be done for an extra $5 per device per month (or $30 with an extra 3GB of data).
All inclusions expire at the end of the billing month, ie, use it or lose it.
Another important difference is that the $50 plan is available on a month-by-month basis, but the $70 and $130 plans require 24 month contracts - that's usually the way for plans that include handsets.
An introductory special on the $70 and $130 plans, available until 4 November, waives the access fee for the first three months.
