The Localphone Blog

Many customers have written to us in the wake of the recent flood disaster in Pakistan asking for a temporary discount on our call rates so they can keep in contact with their loved ones.

After negotiating with our suppliers in the country they have generously agreed to reduce our costs, allowing us to immediately lower the cost of calls to Pakistan to just $0.079 USD / £0.053 GBP / €0.064 EUR per minute. I am also pleased to announce that despite only recently reducing our rates, this is not a temporary change but our new standard rate to Pakistan.

Recent United Nations estimates give the number of people suffering as a result of these floods at over 13.8 million, as well as causing billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and crops. We hope these reduced call rates will go some way to giving comfort as the recovery process begins.

With the massive infrastructure damage there may be some call quality or connectivity issues, but please don’t hesitate to contact us and our engineers will work hard to find alternative routes for your calls.

Further information:

• 2010 Pakistan floods
• In pictures: Pakistan under water
• Red Cross Pakistan Floods Appeal

We contacted customers on Friday to announce a special weekend rate to Pakistan, and were very pleased to see such an enthusiastic uptake.

You may recall we were recently forced to increase our rates due to higher costs imposed by the Pakistani Government. As promised, we have worked hard with our suppliers to try to reduce our rates again as soon as possible, and I’m pleased to announce our new rate to call Pakistan landlines and mobiles is USD $0.085 / GBP £0.059 / EUR €0.067 per minute, effective immediately.

While this is not yet back to the previous levels it does represent a significant reduction, and follows through on our commitment to always pass our savings on to you. We will continue to strive to be the best value for your international calls, and thank you for your ongoing support.

We have unfortunately been forced to increase our call rate to Pakistan in response to actions taken by the Pakistani Government. Effective from 00:00 GMT on 1st July our rate to Pakistan will be $0.109 / £0.076 / €0.089 per minute to both landlines and mobiles.

Due to a rise in the cost of terminating international calls in Pakistan, our suppliers have had to increase the rate they charge us, and we are forced to do the same. It is important to note that this situation is entirely unavoidable and Localphone will in fact make less profit as our margin is now even tighter.

While we always hate to increase our rates, even at these new prices we still offer considerable savings on your international calls with no compromise on quality.

We expect that all international call providers will announce similar rate increases in the coming days. As has happened in the past with Pakistan, we expect the wholesale market will quickly compete to offer lower rates and we’ll pass these savings straight on to you.