Vodafone’s new freephone rates for businesses are pitched at stealing lucrative 0800 and 0508 services from its arch rivals TelstraClear and Telecom.

GM of product, pricing and internet Kursten Shalfoon says they’ve deliberately priced their services significantly below those offered on Telecom’s website. He says businesses can save up to 30% by switching providers.

Vodafone will charge a monthly fee at $50 a month, and every call that a firm’s customers makes on their freephone number will be charged back to the business as follows:

From a local landline: Vodafone - 4c a minute, Telecom - 5c a minute

From a national landline: Vodafone - 12c a minute, Telecom - 16c a minute

From a mobile: Vodafone - 17c a minute, Telecom - 36c a minute

Calls are charged per minute, so if a customer phoning on a mobile is on the line for 20 seconds it will still cost the firm 17c a minute with Vodafone and 36c a minute with Telecom

Shalfoon says this is the first time that Vodafone has offered this fixed line product to business customers. Previously Telecom and TelstraClear were the only telcos offering a freephone service.

In addition to cheaper rates, Shalfoon says the Vodafone freephone product offers services such as time of day routing, percentage call distribution, geographic routing and toll-free beep (the latter enables businesses know which calls they're paying for).

Shalfoon says major users such as banks and government departments will have negotiated rates that are lower than those shown in the table above.