
Today, for the first time, I made such a free call on my cell phone, for which “normal” cellular communication was enough for me. I emphasize: this call did not go over the Internet (that is,
not via Skype and not via SIP, where you won’t surprise anyone for free), but through the “usual” mobile operator -
Tele2 . I called the subscriber of another mobile operator.
At the same time, my call was free of charge not by advertising (like the European
Blyk ) and not by any fixed advance monthly or weekly fee (if I had to, I should call the calls
not “free”, but “unlimited”). My call was free of charge
.
And all this is due to the fact that the day before yesterday (October 16, 2013)
on Tele2 website the news was posted about the appearance of a new tariff
“ Again cheaper ”, under which free outgoing calls are registered. As soon as I found the time to study the conditions of this tariff in more detail, I immediately switched to it.
The volume of free calls is
limited both in time (no more than 30 minutes per day) and in space (only to mobile and landline phones of the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea).
But I’m not a great fan of chatting on my cell phone, so this half an hour will be enough for me most of the days.
It’s also immediately obvious that expensive Internet (6 rubles per megabyte) can annoy at this rate, so it’s appropriate (if not necessary) to buy
some kind of discount to your taste (say, “
Internet from the phone ”
or “ Internet freedom ”) , depending on the volume of traffic). I had one of them connected before that, and when I switched to a new tariff, it was preserved - so I pay for the Internet at the previous price, but the calls are free.
What does the appearance of this new trick in the competition between mobile providers in Russia indicate?
Firstly, the psychological limit has been reached -
zero rubles.Further, you can only expand the geography of calls or the number of free minutes. Perhaps, in itself a new tariff is the extension in relation to the rates of other operators, which also offers free calls, but within the limits of only one operator (list them in traffic lights right colors tariff
" Super MTS " MTS tariff
" Zero doubt " At Beeline, tariff
" Go to ZERO " at MegaFon). Secondly, you can take a breath after the March
news that VTB acquired the Russian branch of Tele2. Then many, many feared that cheap Tele2 tariffs would
go somewherego away; but no - they haven’t gone anywhere, and even a new tariff with free calls has appeared.