Mercury Energy has teamed with telecommunications firm WorldxChange to offer cheap phone deals to its 250,000 power customers in Auckland.
The deal is the first of several marketing arrangements Mercury plans to negotiate with other service providers.
Mercury customers who want the cheap phone deal will actually have to sign with WorldxChange,but the arrangement uses the buying power of the electricity company's big customer base to ensure more favourable prices.
The arrangement will allow Mercury customers to get cheap national and international toll calls, such as $1.50 weekend calls to anywhere in the country for up to three hours, and 22c-a-minute off-peak calls to Australia, Britain and the United States.
Mercury customers will also be able to join a loyalty programme offering vouchers at stores such as Foodtown if they spend more than $35 a month on calls.
Despite the deal, WorldxChange says competition in the long-distance market is threatened following a price-slashing special offered to residential customers by Telecom.
The chief executive of WorldxChange, Steven Stanford, said Telecom was offering the 9c-a-minute off-peak deal without simultaneously reducing wholesale access charges to companies such as his. This suggested a strategy to drive out residential competition.
A Telecom spokesman, Clive Litt, said negotiations on new wholesale rates were taking place now and Telecom had made an offer of reductions of up to 25 per cent on many calls. The 9c-a-minute rate also involved a $5 flat-rate monthly fee. - STAFF REPORTERS
