Warehouse Mobile has 4c calls – but with a catch

THE WAREHOUSE has launched its mobile phone service with pricing that may have many occasional mobile-phone users reaching for their calculators.

The company is offering prepaid calls for just 4 cents a minute, with texts costing 2c.

The ‘‘catch’’ is that consumers must have topped up their phone with at least $10 credit in the previous 31 days in order to make calls and texts.

Data pricing at 6c a megabyte means it will not be the most competitive option for people who use significant amounts of mobile data, who may be better-off on ‘‘bundled’’ plans.

The Warehouse said the service, which it has launched through a deal with 2degrees, undercut Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees’ casual pre-paid calling rates, which range between 20c and 49c a minute.

But the top-up condition means the appropriate comparison may be with monthly prepaid plans such as Spark’s $9 Skinny combo which offers 30 minutes of calls, unlimited texts and 100 megabytes of data a month.

If Warehouse Mobile customers don’t top up within 31 days, their Sim card will still stay active for a year so they will still be able to receive incoming calls and texts.

The Warehouse does not own its own mobile network and has launched the service by reselling 2degrees’ network and becoming what is known as a ‘‘mobile virtual network operator’’ (MVNO).

In a submission to the Government on regulatory reform this month, the Telecommunications Users Association had bemoaned the lack of such MVNO arrangements.

Chief executive Craig Young said those concerns still stood but The Warehouse’s service was the kind of innovation the lobby group wanted to see.

‘‘It is a bit different and it is a sign of what we are seeing elsewhere in the world.’’

The Warehouse’s Sim cards have been priced at $4 and will all have numbers that start with the prefix 0284.