Crazy Phone

The other day I payed my phone bill and was wondering why it was twice as high as usual. I use my land line as my DSL umbilical cord to the life-sustaining rest of the world; and the occasional call to Switzerland or the US. After some navigating the phone company web site, I found out that I had made couple of longish calls to Switzerland that would have made it almost cheaper to just fly there and talk in person.
So, I created a table of what the costs are to call the US and Switzerland:

Destination		Type		Cost
to USA				0.09/min
to Switzerland		Landline		0.35/min
to Switzerland		Mobile		0.75/min

Calling the USA is cheaper than calling Switzerland, which is closer. The Irish have more relatives and connections in America than Switzerland, but this is still strange. The costs above are in Euro, so calling a cell phone in Switzerland would add up quickly!
Then I looked at the cost of using my pay-as-you-go cell phone:

Destination		Type		Cost
to USA				0.15/min
to Switzerland		Landline		0.15/min
to Switzerland		Mobile		0.30/min

It is cheaper to call Switzerland from my cell phone, than using my land line!

I took the pictures, had notes on costs, and was going to blog this weekend, but didn't have time: Supercomputing paper submission deadlines are looming!
This afternoon, Vodafone, my cell phone and land line provider called and asked whether I would like to get a better deal when calling mainland Europe, including Switzerland, from my land line! I am 100% sure I had not typed any of the above thoughts and information into any computer; so that was kind of spooky!
The deal is this: I enter a contract for a year to keep them as my provider, and they give me 60 calling minutes to Switzerland per month. I pay nothing for this for the first six months, and then 8.99 per month.
I am gaining new respect for the Irish: This is pre-preemptive.