Rebtel Blog

Lower Rates Due To 1-minute Rounding

As of 12th of November, Rebtel will start using 1-minute rounding instead of 6-second rounding after the first minute.

First let’s clarify what per minute rounding really is and how it affects you as a user. Minute rounding is the portion of the per minute rate charged for calls with a duration of less then a full minute of call time. Many calling card companies use 3-minute or even 5 minute billing to fraud their users, however the standard rounding in the telecom business is 1-minute billing. With a 1-minute rounding, a full minute is charged for any portion of a minute that is used. In other words, the call time is rounded up to the next full minute. For example, a call with duration of 2 minutes and 10 seconds would be billed for 3 minutes.

The reason why we are moving to 1-minute rounding is because we can then lower our rates even more and become comparable with the standard in the telecom business. We constantly strive to consistently push our rates to new lows for all calling destinations worldwide and this will allow us to do just that.  As a direct testament, we’re kicking things off by lowering the rates to more than 60 calling destination. To see it for yourself, head over to our rates page for more information.

E-Plus Blocks Rebtel Access Numbers In Germany

Dear Rebtel friends,

Once again an operator has decided to block our local numbers for calling. Thanks to all users who were quick to inform us about the problem.

This time it’s the third largest operator in Germany E-Plus. We have contacted E-Plus and asked for an explanation on why they are stopping their own customers from calling a standard local number.

However the reason why E-Plus wants to stop Rebtel is of course the very high margins on their international calling. But it’s a short-sighted way of stopping any threats to their diminishing margins. Their actions violate not only the EU-regulations but are also a breach of E-Plus customers’ contracts. With their rates, lockins and hidden charges they can be 1000% more expensive than Rebtel. Please feel free to compare our rates to their rates..

If you are as upset as we are about this please consider sending an e-mail to the E-Plus support.

To summarize, we are sorry this happened. It shouldn’t have to. Enough said is that it has happened many times before but with over 3 million users Rebtel is currently not being blocked by any operator in the world. Except E-Plus. The reason why we are never blocked is something E-Plus is about to experience when their users start contacting them.

Please follow the latest developments and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section on this post or follow us on Twitter.

Lastly, if you would be so kind, please help us raise awareness about this problem by digging this post on Digg, retweeting it or perhaps posting it to your Facebook profile.

Thank you and take care!

More:
http://www.eplus.de/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Plus

Update: The person that handle these types of anti-competitive issues in the European Commission is called Viviane Reding. Viviane is the Commissioner for Information Society and Media and we should all make her aware of what is going on. If you have a few minutes to spare, please send her an email on viviane.reding@ec.europa.eu and let her know how you feel.

Party Is On - Rebtel Officially Best In Class

There has been little to no guidance for people looking for the cheapest rates in the jungle of Mobile VoIP providers. A lot of companies make claims saying they have the cheapest rates but most of the times they fail to back it up. Well, here at Rebtel we actually try our best to always practice what we preach and now we have something to officially show for it.

An independent third-party research company based in London called Technology Appraisals has done a pretty, pretty extensive comparative study on 15 Mobile VoIP Providers and their prices. You might have figured out where I’m going with this and you are completely right. We won!

Out of all companies featured in the study, Jajah and Truphone to name two, Rebtel was crowned best in class and overall price leader. This is obviously great for all you guys being our users but it’s just as great for us as a company. There are a lot of factors that make up Rebtel in terms of our own values and benefits we want give our users but there are two in particular that we never have (and never will) compromise on: reliable quality of service and reliably low rates. We like to think we have the best quality (hopefully you agree with us) and now it’s finally official that we do have the lowest rates. Among others, the cool people over at TMCNet covered the story and you can find it here.

So what are the learnings here? Well, we think you should give yourself a nice pat on the back, have a cold drink in the sun with someone you really like and feel extra smart because you use Rebtel

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