Save on Your Phone Bills : iTalk from TM

Save on your phone bills : iTalk from TM

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to reduce your Telekom Malaysia (TM) phone bills is by using a solution from TM itself. It's like an oxymoron, reduce your costly TM bills by using cheap TM solution. Yes, what I'm referring to is iTALK from TM.

My home phone bills used to come up to RM70, and now, only around RM20, that being RM15 for the rental and ~RM5 for local calls and taxes.

Yes, I'm saving $$.

The rates to call from iTALK (home phone) to any national or mobile number are a lot cheaper then calling direct from your home phone.


From TM's iTalk website http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates.html

Call using	Fixed phones	Mobile phones
1 800 87 3535	15 sen per min	17 sen per min

Note : iTalk is charged based on a flat rate. The call rates are in per blocks of 20 sec.

Compared to TM's published rates for Personal (home phones) national calls plucked from http://www.tm.com.my/personal/telephony/long-distance-call.asp#national

Distance (km) Homeline/Businessline to Homeline/Businessline	Full Rate 7.00 a.m. - 6.59 p.m.	Reduced rate 7.00 p.m. - 6.59 a.m.	Operator Assisted** (charge per 3 mins)
Band A (Not Exceeding 50km)	10 sen/50 seconds	10 sen/60 seconds*	35 sen
Band B (50km - 150km)	10 sen/20 seconds	10 sen/40 seconds	90 sen
Band C (Exceeding 150km)	10 sen/7 seconds	10 sen/14 seconds	RM2.7

Note:

* Currently, TM charges for each 75 seconds
** Operator Assisted
- Service charge per effective call is RM1.50
- Per block of 3+3

Assuming above are latest rates published by TM, as of date of publishing this blog entry, you can see that for any calls exceeding 50km, you get a significant savings.

The best way to get iTalk to work for you is, buy a iTalk card, set it up in your house phone following the attached step-by-step. And you're done, just call the 1800+ number and iTalk automatically detects your phone with the loaded credit. In other words, no need to key in Pin Number everytime you call. And when you top-up using your house phone, it automatically adds it to your current balance. This is a big benefit compared to some other calling cards where you can't combine cards.


Another great thing is the call-me-back feature (missed callback). Yes, I believe a couple of other local companies introduced this before iTALK came about. Once you have set-up your house phone (or if you're setting up just your mobile) for iTALK, call the 1 800 87 3535 number, you can also setup your mobile for Missed-Callback. Once setup, just dial 1 800 87 3636, the call will terminate and call you back, key in the number to call and wait.

Below is the comparison
iTalk rates from http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates.html

Call using

Fixed phones

Mobile phones

1 800 87 3636 ( Missed Callback )

24 sen per min

25 sen per min

Compared to TM from http://www.tm.com.my/personal/telephony/long-distance-call.asp#national

MTX Area Homeline/Businessline to Mobile	Full Rate 9.00 a.m. - 8 .59 p.m.	Reduced rate 9.00 p.m. - 8.59 a.m.	Operator Assisted (charge per 3 mins)
Band L (within MTX)	10 sen/20 seconds	10 sen/30 seconds	RM2.10
Band M (Adjacent MTX)	10 sen/8.6 seconds	10 sen/15 seconds	RM2.10
Band N (Non-Adjacent MTX)	10 sen/8.6 seconds	10 sen/15 seconds	RM2.10

Note:

• The above call charge is effective from 1st Jan 2005
• A service charge of RM 1.50 is levied for the effective call made via Operator Assisted service
• MTX denotes Mobile Telephone Exchange Area

You can also make International Calls using iTALK. Comparisons by going to the below links.
For TM International Call Rates http://www.tm.com.my/idd/country/a.asp
For iTalk International Call Rates http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates-pg2.html

I'm not going to compare each country as it's too much. Lets just take USA as an example,
TM

Country

Country Code

Rate per minute (RM)

Time Difference (hours)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

1

0.90

-13 to -16

Calls are charged in blocks of 6 seconds or part thereof

Vs iTalk

DESTINATION	COUNTRY CODE	Normal Access 1 800 87 3535 (per min)		Mobile Call Back Service 1 800 87 3636 (per min)
IDD		FIXED	MOBILE	FIXED	MOBILE

USA

1

0.15

0.15

0.30

0.30

So even with Call-me-back, it's a lot cheaper.

Note, that for some countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, there is an a lot cheaper calling card in the market, which is not only cheap, but based on my experience the connect rate is higher. I will share this in my future blogs.

Local Calls - Just use your house phone. "Each local call is charged at 8 sen for the first 2 minutes or part thereof and 4 sen for each subsequent minute or part thereof."

Tip1: When making calls using Missed Callback, do not press the 'SEND' or 'YES' or 'CALL' button on your mobile phone as this will instruct your mobile phone to make a direct call instead of via iTalk

Tip2: Usually if you buy higher reload values at shops, you might be a slight 'discount'.

Summary - iTalk is a real saver.

PS- I noticed many people searching for below numbers, so here you go:
i. To make call and activate thru Fixed Line, dial 1800-87-3535
ii. For call-back to your mobile and to activate thru your handphone, dial 1800-87-3636 or 03-5636 3366