Rebtel, Did You Try It?

[Effendi]

I saw the link on Adsense here on the forum and I found it very interesting:
http://www.rebtel.com

I tryed a test call to my CallKeyOne number here in Italy, calling from landline (I have free national calls) and also from my mobile to Travelsim, but I forgot I have no credit on TS so, of course, it didn't work.
The call from landline (Wind) to KallKeyOne using Rebtel was not bad, there's a little delay and quality is not perfect, but it's incredibly cheap.

The interesting (and a bit complicated) aspect is the billing and the way of calling.
You pay 1US$ per week (only if you use the service) and you can do unlimited 30 seconds calls for free. During the 30 seconds you can give your "friend" a local number of his/her country where to call you to, paying just a national call fee of his/her provider. Then he/she hangs off and calls the local number while you keep the line on and you'll be connected free of charge.

It's a bit complicated and I hope I understood it correctly... I hope to try it in November when I'm going to Malta, and maybe even sooner if I'll go to Slovakia and Poland. Of course it's good with local prepaid simcards, not much with international sims.

[Przemolog]

Hey, you were faster then me with this Rebtel news . I found out about it only yesterday, when the company announced its service in Poland (http://www.rebtel.com/rebtel/pressrelease_4.aspx; BTW, Onet.pl, Rebtel's partner in Poland is already Skype's partner here).

As far as I understood the idea, REBout is something just like PINless calling with a calling card to a personal access number.

And REBin looks to me like the "reverse" of callback - the call is outgoing for the both parties. IMHO it is a smart idea if both parties have low mobile-to-landline rates (avoiding the high mobile termination rates)

Finally, Very Important Rates to mobile phones:
Estonia 0.29
Iceland 0.28
Monaco 0.22
UK 0.22
and Liechtenstein "only" 0.85

Originally Posted by Effendi

Of course it's good with local prepaid simcards, not much with international sims.

If your international sim's tariff has a large difference between rates to landlines and mobiles, it might make sense in some cases...

[money69]

Im a little confused on how this works but an interesting find none the less. Basically they have a set list of local numbers for various cities and countries on earth. You bacically dial your friends long distance number and tell him to hold on and then hang out and dial your your local access number and you're connected?

[money69]

I tried this with a friend in peru and could not get it to work, for starters, they state that calls under 30sec to give the other person their local number are free. I was charged. Secondly, the instructions says to remain on the line when the other party hangs up and you wait for them to call the local number and then you're connected. Problem is when they hang up the line ws being dropped on my end. Anyone have any different luck?

[andy]

There's something odd with my memory, as I thought I read about it on here before. I seem to remember nearly posting a reply*, that it seemed to work very much like a conference room facility, which people could set up elsewhere for themselves anyway and I even thought of jokingly suggesting a PPGSM one

Or am I thinking of another service? Apologies for not posting Rebtel here then.

There is discussion of it on Niftylist forums, in which, errr, I um ......... well read it

I think that petkow there (who has joined here) has been a bit disappointed with Rebtel. Sometimes you end up paying for calls to mobiles when you didn't expect to, and so on

http://niftylist.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1536.0

In the end I suggested using Sipbroker and free conference room facility from Sipphone (choice of 10 million)



* looks like Stan put it here first! ..... and I did reply

[jeffharris]

I've been using Rebtel. Works well, as described. And it IS very confusing at first, but, then once you start using it, it gets easy. The only thiong is, it is only a few pennies cheaper than other int'l discount services you can use form your cell (like Gorilla Mobile), and billed by the minute, and you are charged $1 a week to use. So, if you only use it once in a week, you better talk at least 25 minutes to take advantage of the 4c a minute savings, from, say a service like Gorillamobile. You are not charged the $1 if you do not use it in one week.

[money69]

Can you explain exactly how it works and what you did to get it to work. the problem I had comparing what it says to do and what happened is after the inital call to the person you want to talk to is that when they hang up it says to stay on the line but when the other party hangs up it disconnects my side as well. Anyone know how sure how to get it to work?

[mrbarlow]

I've just stumbled across this and I must admit it intrigued me so I thought I'd sign up and give it a go, especially since they are currently offering a 1month holiday on the $1 fees.

The UI via the web site is quite nice and it's pretty easy to use. Thus far I've tried it on UK & Estonian based people and it's worked fine other than on one Estonian call (the callback dropped) and one UK call (couldn't hear each other from the initial call).

In general the quality is pretty good: call volume is perhaps a little lower than a "normal" call and there does seem to be something of a delay effect but it's perfectly usable. I'm not certain what happens if you then added a new telephone number (i.e. when travelling) i.e. whether it automatically generates new local numbers for all your contacts or whether you'd have to do it manually - if so that would be a pain.

As others have pointed out, the rates and service are not the answer to everything. For one thing, it's cheaper to make overseas calls to landlines and mobiles from call through numbers (without the delay) and more often through VOIP services too.

Initially I thought it could be a good travel solution and could cancel my plan to buy an international sim (given that 1 and possibly 2 of this year's planned trips are now covered by 3). However, you have to do the maths beforehand on a case-by-case basis. E.g. I'm going to France for a 4 day trip in Feb and toyed with the idea of buying a local SIM and using Rebeltel.

However, such are the cost of making even local calls (€0.45 on NRJ) there, it would work out cheaper to make calls using an International SIM even if the recipient did call me back! Plus, I would effectively be paying for incoming calls ($0.20mob $0.02landline) since this would be a cheaper option than calling back @ €0.45 per minute.

Also, thinking about my Canada trip: Rebeltel could potentially save money for calling UK landlines, but given that Fido charges only $0.35CDN to call any UK number this would work out cheaper to use than Rebeltel for a UK mobile (as possibly would a good calling card). I've noticed also that the "local" number for Toronto is 647 whereas from what I can gather all the numbers in central Toronto seem to be 416?

I suppose from the pricing structure that the main appeal is calling between European mobile networks on which both parties have contracts with plenty of inclusive minutes. It would suit someone like my girlfriend since she is from Estonia and would be able to use her uk mobile to ring her friends/family on their mobiles (and vice versa) and providing they do the call back it will be cost effective.

It would also work out cheaper to use Rebeltel than an International SIM when I next visit Estonia so I suppose all this really is a case of different horses for different courses!