Call to answer phone complaints

By Rebecca Fraser
CASEY mayor Kevin Bradford has again dialled up the issue of what he says are Cranbourne’s unfair telephone charges.
At Tuesday’s council meeting he said Cranbourne needed to be granted metropolitan zone status to end years of inequitable call charges.
Cr Bradford said Cranbourne residents were not only paying country call rates but local businesses were being excluded from metropolitan phone directories.
He moved that the council write a letter, signed by the mayor and all councillors, to Flinders MP Greg Hunt regarding the Telstra call costs in Cranbourne.
Cr Bradford said Mr Hunt had said last year that metropolitan zone status would soon be granted, yet residents are still waiting.
“This is an unfair situation that has been affecting the residents of Cranbourne for over 15 years.
“Cranbourne residents have put up with this for far too long and this must be changed,” Cr Bradford said.
The mayor also moved that the council write a letter to the CEO of Telstra, Mr Sol Trujillo, requesting a review of the call costs and charges in the Cranbourne area.
Councillor Mick Morland said the situation was unfairly disadvantaging Cranbourne traders who could not be listed in the metropolitan phone book.
“Every resident and business is being affected,” he said.
Councillor Lorraine Wreford said the situation was very unfair on the Cranbourne community and moved that all councillors sign the letter to express their concern about the issue.
Last week, the News reported that Cranbourne residents were furious about an extra $3 a month Telstra charges to call people in the city.
Cranbourne’s Helen Silke said the new charges, to come into effect on 1 August, were ridiculous as Cranbourne was part of Melbourne, not the country, and so should be treated the same.
Last year, Cranbourne residents, politicians and councillors lobbied Telstra to change the metropolitan call zone boundaries so that Cranbourne people could enjoy cheaper calls. But Telstra said it did not have the capacity to change zoning boundaries and instead introduced a free wide area call option, covering calls up to a 50-kilometre radius for 25 cents a call.
However, from the start of next month, people will be charged $29.95 a month for this option, known as HomeLine Plus, while the HomeLine Complete option will stay at $26.95 a month.
A Telstra spokeswoman said while there was a small increase to prices on the HomeLine Plus option, people would save both on local calls and STD calls.
She said if people wanted more information they could contact Telstra customer service on 1800 283 407.