Call for Change with Rebtel
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.â€
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.
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richard laakso says:
November 16th, 2007 at 1:03 am
I received my cell phone bill today, and all the calls I have made from Chile to the U.S. through Rebtel have been billed by both Rebtel and my service provider. Just over $1,000 U.S. I have been mislead by Rebtel!! I made calls that I would not have made if I had not done so through Rebtel!! BE WARNED!!!!
Niclas says:
December 12th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Dear Richard,
First of all, we’re very sorry to hear that you’ve been charged such a high amount by your phone provider.
The reason to why our rates are so low is because if you are in New York and call a local New York number then that will be all you get charged by your Operator, but if you are in Chile and call a New York number then the number will no longer be local since you are located in another country and your operator will charge you for calling a New York number from Chile and I’m afraid that is the reason to your problem.
Rebtel creates local numbers so that you can call your international friends/contacts for the cost of a local call. You always pay your operator when using Rebtel. If you have free minutes (inclusive) in your calling plan you can use them and all you pay Rebtel is a small per-minute rate when making direct calls.
You can use Rebtel when you travel, but you’ll need to buy a local SIM card in the country you’re visiting and set it up as your primary number on your existing account for the service to work as it is intended. Rebtel doesn’t take care of roaming costs. (You can find more info about this on our website, in this blog post and on our user forum.)
Best regards,
Niclas
Rebtel Customer Team