Cable & Wireless Optus today launched an assault on the long distance telephony market with a pricing structure designed to change the way people make national and international long distance calls.

Called Optus FreeTime, the new pricing offer is unique in removing distance, time and cost barriers from long distance calls. The offer is a combination of paid and free talk time available any time 24 hours a day, seven days a week anywhere within Australia or to any overseas country.

"Customers can throw away their clocks and have a phone conversation without having to worry about the time they spend on the phone, or deciding in advance how long the conversation will be. Optus FreeTime also provides excellent value for money," said Andrew Gale, Director of Home and Business Services, Cable & Wireless Optus.

Optus FreeTime for national long distance allows customers to call long distance any time to anywhere within Australia, talk for up to three hours and pay no more than $3. If the call is less than $3, customers only pay for the time used. If a call is more than three hours, the low, per-minute national long distance rates simply start again.

Optus FreeTime for international long distance allows customers to call long distance any time to anywhere overseas and have their call charged at Optus' new, low preselected per minute rate for that country. Once a call reaches the set amount for where a customer is calling, the clock stops and the customer can keep talking for free until the total call time reaches three hours.

"Optus FreeTime continues to build on the innovative pricing offers we currently provide to our customers like Mobile's Yes Time and Yes Weekend. Optus FreeTime is designed to change the way customers make long distance calls by inspiring them with capped call charges combined with free talk time," said Mr Gale.

"Research into our customer's calling needs suggested three things - customers want to call long distance more often, they want to talk for longer and not be bound by preset time blocks. They also want an offer that removes the anxiety surrounding the cost of the call."

"With Optus FreeTime, customers only pay for what they use while knowing that $3 is the most they pay for a 3 hour national long distance call and that international calls are also capped competitively. In addition, customers no longer have to nominate a preferred country as our new low preselected rates and Optus FreeTime are available to all countries."

"We are now giving long distance customers more of what they really value - the power to talk for as long or as little as they like, whenever they want to and wherever they want to."

Optus FreeTime is available from Monday 1 November 1999 and is exclusive to preselected Optus Residential and Small Business long distance customers.

For more information contact:
Melissa Favero
Cable & Wireless Optus
Tel: 02 9342 5030