Free calling to Samoa

Telecommunications companies are offering free calling to Samoa (and in some cases, Tonga) in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster there.SamoaTelecom customers will not be charged for home phone calls to Samoa from midnight Tuesday until midnight Friday 2 October. Calls to Tonga will also not be charged from midnight Wednesday to midnight Friday.“Many New Zealanders are making calls to check on the safety of family and friends. We feel it’s important that our customers are not worrying about the cost of those calls,” says Telecom Retail CEO, Alan Gourdie. “However, it is imperative that all telecommunications providers take steps to prevent overloading the local networks in affected countries so that essential calls and emergency services can be connected. For this reason calls should be kept to under five minutes.”Orcon is offering free calls via its network to landline and mobile phone numbers in Samoa until Sunday. The offer is valid for calls to both Western and American Samoa and is effective immediately.Starting at 6pm tonight, calls from Vodafone On Account mobiles and Prepay mobiles, as well as from Vodafone landlines, to Samoan numbers will be free for the next two days.2degrees says for the next two weeks it will be offering free calls up to a five-minute cap from its New Zealand network to Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.