1300 Calls
What happens on a call to a 1300 number, stage by stage — the dial, the cost split, the answer point — using only the published rates and arrangements.
A call to a 1300 number has three published stages: the caller dials the one number published everywhere; the cost splits — the caller pays a local call cost and the business pays the remainder; and the call arrives at the answer point recorded at signup. Each stage has published facts behind it, and this page walks them in order without inventing a fourth.
Stage 1 — the dial
The caller dials the 1300 number — the same one from the website, listing or signage, because the number is state-neutral with no area code. Nothing about the dial changes with the caller's state; the digits are the same across Australia.
Stage 2 — the cost split
The shared-cost design: the caller pays a local call cost, and the business pays the remainder at its plan's published per-minute rates — fixed-line and mobile rates differ by row, and rates are per minute calculated on a per-second basis. With Cap plans, the monthly fee is the only charge until the included value is used, then per-minute rates apply. The current tables sit on the pricing page ($10, $15, $39, $79 and $99 per month); this page does not calculate what any specific call costs in total.
Stage 3 — the answer point
The call arrives at the answer point recorded at signup — the flow asks for the number the service will connect to. What happens from there (who answers, how) is the business's own arrangement, not a published feature of the number. Whether the call was answered well is not something the published record measures on this page.
What a 1300 call is not
Stated plainly: it is not free for the caller — that is the 1800 arrangement — and it is not a recorded, queued or distributed call on this record; no such features are published beyond the listed add-ons. No activation timeframe is published, and terms sit in the terms and conditions.
Related reading: 1300 number rates, 1300 number costs, or the 1300 numbers pillar.
Call questions
Who pays for a 1300 call?
Both sides, by design: the caller pays a local call cost and the business pays the remainder under its plan.
Does the business pay per second or per minute?
Rates are per minute, calculated on a per-second basis — a published distinction worth knowing before estimating a bill.
Where does the call go?
To the answer point recorded at signup. Beyond that point, answering arrangements are the business's own.
Are 1300 calls free like 1800?
No — the caller pays a local call cost. The free-caller arrangement is 1800's published difference.
The call, stage by stage
What actually happens when someone calls a 1300
Dial, cost split, answer point.