CyTA slashes overseas rates

THE Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) announced yesterday it was slashing international call rates by up to 77 per cent.

The new rates make it possible to call landlines in Greece, the UK, Germany and US for just over three cents per minute from fixed phones on the island, while calls to Russia will range from only 2.76 cents per minute for Moscow and just over four cents per minute elsewhere. Overall, charges to 211 countries will drop, CyTA said.

For monthly subscribers, mobile rates from Cytamobile-Vodafone are dropping 29 per cent for calls to fixed phones, now costing 4.95 cents per minute to Greece and the UK, plus VAT.

Mobile to mobile calls to the same two countries have been slashed to 15.9 cents and 13.5 cents per minute respectively, some 20 per cent down.
With the new cuts, So-easy calls, which include VAT, will cost 6.21 cents per minute to fixed lines in Greece and the UK, and calls to mobiles will be 18.9 cents per minute to Greece, and 15.5 cents per minute to the UK.

CyTA competitor areeba charges monthly users calling Greece five cents per minute to a landline and 14 cents to a mobile, which means their charges are still undercutting CyTA as the company operates on a flat-rate basis.

Under CyTA’s new call charges, landline to landline calls to Greece drop from 3.9 cents per minute for peak and off peak to 3.36 cents for peak and 3.12 cents for off-peak.

Landline to mobile calls to Greece have been cut from 15.96 cents during peak hours to 15.6 cents, and from 15 cents in off-peak hours to 14.28 cents per minute.

Calls to the UK from fixed phones to fixed phones, which now stand at 3.96 cents per minute during peak and off-peak hours, change to 3.12 cents and 2.88 cents per minute respectively.

Landline to UK mobile charges drop from 13.92 per cent to 11.7 cents per minute during peak hours to 10.74 cents per minute.

Fixed phone to mobile calls for the US, already the cheapest at 3.96 cents per minute peak and off-peak, have been further cut to 3.3 cents per minute in peak hours and 3 cents per minute off-peak.

In an announcement, CyTA said that the new prices reflected the authority’s policy of providing a service based on their own costs.

“We promise there will be new offers in the coming months because CyTA plans to be the number one choice for householders,” the announcement said.

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