You will have to pay for BB calls

JOHANNESBURG -- Big Brother junkies who thought they were investing their free cellphone minutes in voting out housemates are in for a shock -- the calls aren't free.

They're classified as special service calls and are charged at a special rate. Free minutes don't apply to these calls.

An irate fan of the popular show has discovered that the 100 free minutes she thought she was using to vote Bad Brad out of the Big Brother house went unused. Instead, she was charged for all the calls, and is now expecting a hefty cellphone bill at the end of the month.

The voteline, hosted by Vodacom and heavily punted by M-Net, has received 2,4 million calls since it was established, said Joan Joffe, Vodacom's group executive for corporate affairs.

But while the Big Brother voteline appears to be a normal cellphone number, it is in fact classified as a general service call. This means that callers are charged at different rates according to the service contracts they have, and free minutes don't apply on any packages or contracts.

"Hello, this is Big Brother. Before we start, please press the star key twice, now..." is the voteline's recorded greeting, ensuring that callers spend about 10 seconds on the line before voting or competition proceedings start.

Joffe explained that all voteline calls -- of which Big Brother is one -- were general service calls which were specifically excluded from free minutes in contracts signed by customers. "Many of our general service numbers are full 082 numbers. There was no intention to deceive the public. People are expected to know that general service calls are not part of the free-minute call packages," she said.

MTN spokesperson Jacques Sellschop said calls made from MTN phones were also all charged for, and again free minutes did not apply. -- DDC