TELECOM Eireann and The Irish Times have joined forces to launch a new telephone charge card aimed at business travellers.

The new Telecom Eireann/Irish Times charge card can be used to have telephone calls made from almost any phone in the world billed directly to your telephone account or credit card.

The charge card enables users to avoid expensive hotel surcharges on telephone calls, and the difficulties of dealing with foreign operators. The Telecom Eireann/Irish Times charge card rates are also much cheaper than competitor cards, Telecom Eireann said.