How per-second billing saves money on phone calls in South Africa

Billing sounds like a dull subject until you see what it does to your airtime.

There are two common ways a call is charged. With per-minute billing, every started minute is charged in full. A call of 61 seconds costs two minutes. With per-second billing, a call of 61 seconds costs 61 seconds.

That difference looks small on one call. Now look at a normal day. Most calls are short: "I am outside", "Did you get my message?", "Call me back." Say you make ten calls a day and each runs twenty seconds past a full minute. Per minute, you pay for ten extra minutes you never used. Over a month that is roughly five hours of airtime paid for and not spoken.

The shorter your calls, the more rounding costs you. People who phone to confirm things, such as drivers, salespeople, parents and small business owners, lose the most.

How to check what you are on:

• Look at your network's tariff for the words "per second" or "per minute", and note that some plans charge the first minute in full and only then go per second.
• Compare the length of a recent call with what was deducted for it.

Every call on Ukutel is charged per second from the first second, to any country. You can see each call and its cost in the app, so you never have to take our word for it.

Per-second billing is not a discount. It is simply being charged for what you used. We think that should be the normal way, and as a small company it is one of the plain, quiet things we can do properly.

One more point: a low rate with per-minute rounding can cost more than a slightly higher rate charged per second. Always compare both the rate and how it is counted.