Tried-and-true is new at Jajah November 29th, 2007  

We want to tip our hat to our friends at Jajah for the introduction of Jajah Direct. Those folks have done a brilliant job at making something that Rebtel has been doing from the start sound brand new and innovative.

What I’m talking about is free or low-cost international calls without the need for Internet access. Or said another way: Rebtel service as it’s been from day No.1.

And while we’ve always thought our service was innovative, it’s super nice when you get validation from a competitor that you really did break new ground and that all the other ways of making a VoIP calls are “old school.”

This concept of removing the barriers to unrestricted communication by providing the savings of an Internet call and the convenience of a telephone has been at the heart of Rebtel since our founding in January 2006.

We are firm believers that distance in the 21st century is a myth. It doesn’t cost any more to send email to a co-worker down the hall than to a co-worker on the other side of the world. And since Rebtel is using IP for your call the same should apply to voice services.

Today, Rebtel is hands-down the cheapest way to make international calls. If you know of a cheaper per-minute rate please let us know immediately and we’ll do everything in our power to beat it.

Here are just a few examples of highly trafficked routes from the U.S. and how Rebtel compares to Skype and Jajah (in U.S. cents per minute, calling to a landline phone):

From the US to: Rebtel: Skype: Jajah:
India 5.6 9.2 7.9
China 1.9 2.1 3.3
UK 1.9 2.1 3.1
Mexico 2.0 2.1 5.4
Brazil 2.5 2.6 4.9
Israel 1.9 2.1 3.5
Russia 1.9 4.8 3.6

And those kinds of low-cost calls can be made from 40 countries to anywhere in the world that has phone service.

But actually – we think that free is even better. And that’s why we created Smart Calls.

Yes – to make the international segment of your call totally free requires that you and your friends jump through a hoop or two – the old hold-on, hang-up, call-back dance. But anyone who has done it once or twice will tell you it’s not really all that complicated. Nevertheless, we always leave it up to our customers to decide.

But for anyone out there that still thinks our Smart Calls are too complex, keep an eye on our Facebook application Let’s Talk. You’ll soon be pleasantly surprised. At least we hope so.

By: alexander drewniak

Call for change – No strings attached November 27th, 2007  

Last week Lee Washington in London posted a note on the discussion board of our Facebook Application, Let’s Talk criticising Rebtel for using the crisis in Burma for commercial benefit.

We want to make clear that was never our intention.

Earlier this year many of us at Rebtel joined the Support the Monks Protest in Burma groups on Facebook and elsewhere online. We wore our red shirts on the appointed days of protest. Some of us protested outside the Burmese Embassy. But shortly thereafter the noise and attention shifted to other hot spots and the people of Burma seemed to be quickly forgotten.

We realized that silence is exactly what the dictatorship in Burma wants. So last month the staff at Rebtel came up with a way to put our technology to work free of charge and allow people around the world to call Burmese government offices to voice their discontent and protest. (Click here for more info.)

Because we believe that freedom of speech should always be free we have created Call for Change to allow organizations worldwide to use Rebtel’s services on behalf of good causes. No strings attached.

If you are interested in putting Call for Change to work please contact Greg Spector at greg.spector@rebtel.com or call him at +1 415 717 4666.

By: alexander drewniak

Revolution Rebtel-style now! November 21st, 2007  

We were thrilled to see reports this week on a new research study from Disruptive Analysis showing that mobile VoIP will rapidly eclipse voice over WiFi and become a mainstream form of communication. Rebtel users – you are the revolution’s vanguard. Well done!

And for us at Rebtel, third-party validation that your dreams and vision are on the mark always feels super good. Yesterday we got a double dose of such validation when our friends at Jajah finally came around to offering what Rebtel has been doing from day No.1, while our old buddy Om Malik reminded blog watchers worldwide just where this bright idea came from.

What they’re all suddenly so excited about is the concept conceived in early 2006 by our CTO, Jonas Lindroth: voice over the internet – VoIP calls – without the need to be connected to the internet.

What’s cool is that’s exactly what Rebtel users have been doing for more than a year now, every time they needed to make an international call to someone new while not at their computers.

With Rebtel you just call the Rebtel Operator in your country, enter the international phone number you want to call, and instantly receive an SMS with a local number for that person, which you can save, use and dial forever directly from your mobile phone book. Of course, you never have to pay your operator’s super-expensive rates for international calls ever again.

The big difference between Rebtel and the copycats is that with Rebtel you can use this feature to call anywhere in the world from any of the 40 countries where we offer service. In contrast, they can only do this in six countries and offer access numbers in just a couple of cities.

One long-standing Rebtel bigot was so incensed when he saw this “news” that he wrote us a nasty note with the subject heading: “What’s your view? Jajah a complete Rebtel rip-off?”

Well, our view is “no worries”. We know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So happy calling, Rebtel users. And never forget: you are at the forefront of a revolution!

By: alexander drewniak

Call for Change with Rebtel November 15th, 2007  

In a recent interview with Rebtel’s CEO, Hjalmar Windbladh, trade publication EETimes characterized Rebtel’s No.1 value — taking the customer’s side — as our “novel business plan.”

Novel this may be – in the telecoms industry, at least – but ever since we started it’s been Rebtel’s goal to be an active, disruptive force for change.

We aim to empower our customers, not just by saving them money, but by opening their eyes to the mobile operators’ unethical behaviour and thereby, we hope, bringing about positive changes throughout the entire industry.

Thing is, we’d like to do a bit more than this. We’ve been pondering how to use Rebtel’s technology as a positive force, not just on an individual scale, but on a global one too. How can we help people to express their opinions and voice their protests about things that matter far more than dollars saved on phone calls?

And that’s when we came up with Call for Change – a new program that permits customers to use our technology to disrupt more than the mobile industry. If a hundred people can trigger change by voicing their opinions in front of an embassy, why not use mobile technology to enable hundreds of thousands of people to make their voices heard from afar?

Why not, for example, jam the switchboards of a repressive regime’s embassy around the world, at no cost to the protester? Why not set up a telephone voting system so callers can express their dissatisfaction in a matter of seconds, absolutely free?

With this in mind we recently ran our Call for Change Burma campaign on Facebook, encouraging Facebook users to flood the switchboards of Burmese embassies worldwide to register their disapproval at the atrocities there.

But we want to do so much more.

How can Rebtel technology help organisations like Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders or Friends of the Earth?

Do you run an organisation that could benefit from our technology?

If there is anything we can do for you, please call Greg on +1 415 717 4666 or click here to get a local number where you live to let us know what we can do to help you Call for Change.

By: admin

Let’s Talk… about Rebtel and Facebook November 5th, 2007  

Sorry it’s been so quiet on here – we’ve been hard at work on the next iteration of our Facebook app! And now it’s time to take a peek at some of our new features.

Fancy new dashboard

First off, we’ve renamed the app ‘Let’s Talk’ – because encouraging conversation is what we’re all about! After that, you might notice our snazzy new dashboard screen – imaginatively entitled ‘Home’. You can see your latest activity, view your balance at a glance, and quickly get more numbers for your friends.

Rebtel's Facebook app, Let's Talk


Rebtel friendfinder

Maybe some of your Rebtel contacts are on Facebook and you don’t even know it! We’ve made it easy to match Rebtel contacts with Facebook friends with a single click.

Profile box

Rebtel's Facebook application, Let's Talk

We’ve also updated the box that appears on your profile once you’ve installed the app. Your friends can quickly get a number to call you for cheap by hitting the big blue button under your user pic.

It’s also quite stalkertastic as your friends can see who you’ve been calling – and who’s been calling you. (Course, if you’ve got things to hide then you can change your settings so nobody knows what you’ve been up to!)

Behind-the-scenes action

We’ve also included a bunch of improvements aimed at reducing friction and easing user journeys through the app. We’ve made it easier for users to get numbers for several friends at once. We’ve enabled people to complete their signup within Facebook (previously they had to visit Rebtel.com), and we’ve enhanced a few things within the payment flow, such as making it easier for users to activate auto-recharge. We’ve also clarified our payment error messages so that, on the rare occasions when things do go wrong, our users can know exactly what happened and why.

What do you think?

Your opinions are invaluable to us, and we’re been delighted with the reviews, comments and questions you’ve been leaving on the application homepage. We always endeavour to answer as quickly as we can so feel free to comment either on Let’s Talk or on our user support forum.

So, your feedback is required: what do you like about Let’s Talk? What don’t you like? And what would you love to see in the next release? Tell us – it’s been great developing this app with and for you, so please, keep talking!

By: admin

Free international calls? Sorry, Talkster – Rebtel were there first November 1st, 2007  

There’s been a lot of talk about Talkster, the new free international calling service. We’re not the only ones to notice that their service is extremely similar to ours (“Rebtel-like service”, says one blogger, while another calls it “a Rebtel me-too”).

When asked to differentiate between Talkster’s product and ours, James Wanless (COO of Talkster) is keen to point out that the Talkster service is free, while ours offers a payment option.

That’s right – a payment option. Rebtel always has and always will offer free international calls. Here’s a short video explaining how it works:


Free international calls movie from Rebtel

However, we offer a paying service because that’s what some of our users want. Often these are small businesses who don’t wish to ask clients for a call-back. This also means that Rebtel customers are able to call any country in the world, not just in the 39 countries where the free service is offered.

But free international calling is at the heart of our service, and has been since we started a year and a half ago.

So, to recap: Rebtel offers unlimited free international calls, is available in 39 countries (compared to Talkster’s 29), and doesn’t force users at both ends of the call to sit through a 10-second advert before they can talk to their friends. So what was all that Talkster talk about again?

Rebtel: the original and (dare we say it?) the very best.

By: admin