The Localphone Blog

We’re sorry to announce to those of you who call Pakistan that at 9pm tonight UK time (20:00 UTC) our rate to Pakistan will rise to £0.06 / $0.12 / €0.078 per minute.

The government of Pakistan has increased taxes for incoming international phone calls massively by increasing the ASR (Approved Settlement Rate) from USD $0.025 per minute to $0.10. This affects all carriers who terminate calls to Pakistan and Localphone will not benefit from this increase.

Rest assured that we are constantly working with our suppliers to get Localphone customers the best possible rates and we hope to be able to offer price reductions in the near future.

You can read more about the Pakistan tax changes that have forced this price increase on the official PTA announcement here (63k PDF).

We still offer great quality, cheap international calls using a local access number.

Update: Our CEO discusses the rate increase
Update: We have managed to source a new supplier and have reduced our rate to Pakistan

We have today introduced some improvements to the calling card feature offered by Localphone for its customers. These improvements have been implemented following suggestions from Localphone customers.

Localphone calling card was designed to replicate the functionality of a regular calling card and essentially allows our customers to make calls by dialling any of our access numbers around the world. When they dial the access number we check to see whether we recognise the phone number they are calling from and whether a pin number is set. If we don’t recognise the phone number from the caller ID of the caller they are asked to enter their account number and pin. If we recognise the number and a pin is set they are prompted to enter their pin number. Once authenticated a caller has the following options:

1. Make a call to any number around the world at normal Localphone rates.
2. Check their account balance.

The improvements we have made today relate to being able to make multiple calls from a single call to the access number. The changes are as follows:

1. If the person you are calling hangs up before you you will now automatically be taken back to the main menu.
2. If you want to hang up a call simply press * and you will again be taken back to the main menu.

Customers have requested this as some operators charge per call rather than per minute. One such example is for our UK customers who use Vodafone. Vodafone in the UK offer “stop the clock” where you pay for 3 minutes but can talk for up to 60 minutes at evenings and weekends. With the improvements mentioned above you can now use your mobile to make calls for up to an hour but pay for 3 minutes. Also, Vodafone offer “Vodafone Passport” which allows you to make a call using your regular tariff when roaming for a one off connection fee of 75p. This means that you could be in Spain making calls to the UK calling card number for 75p plus the cost Localphone charge on top. Please be aware that if you use Vodafone passport in this way you must call the UK calling card number as you use your home tariff.

We aim to keep bringing you ways to bring an end to the rip off calling card companies and mobile operators rogue practices of high prices and hidden fees.

We’ve just slashed our rates to call Bangladesh to 2p per minute. For our USA customers the rate is now 4¢ per min and for Europe the price is 2.6c per min. That rate applies to all Bangladesh phone numbers, mobile and landlines. So get calling!