Customer Experiences    Shanghai Daily tries Rebtel

Rebtel's CEO, Hjalmar Winbladh

Making global contacts local

From April of this year Rebtel, a new low cost phone service, became available in Shanghai.

Rebtel’s CEO, serial entrepreneur, Hjalmar Winbladh, got the idea for his latest venture from his own need to keep in touch with friends worldwide. He wanted the convenience factor of using a mobile phone for international calls yet without the high costs, and without being forced to change phones or sim cards. Rebtel lets ordinary people use the internet to make cheap calls across the world from their existing mobile phones.

Though internet calls are already available via applications like Skype, Rebtel is revolutionary in that it is not tied to a computer so no downloads or headsets are required. In fact no special equipment of any kind is needed. All Rebtel requires is your phone number and the number of the person you want to call, and they take care of the rest.

“The simplest way to explain our services is as follows: Go to our website and register with your mobile number, give us your friend’s number that you want to call, and then we will give you a local Shanghai number for that friend instantly. From then on they are no harder to reach than any local friend.” Explained Winbladh.

Undercover tests

Shanghai Daily reporters tested Rebtel services for calling from Shanghai to the UK in Europe. After an initial registration process we found the calls provided by Rebtel to be well worth the effort. At $0.18 (1.25 yuan) a minute the calls were as cheap as most phone cards, and when calling from a landline the calls were extremely clear. The best feature however was the convenience factor – we were able to pick up our normal mobile phone and call a friend abroad from the phonebook without having to worry about costs, or go through the lengthy dialling involved with phone cards.

We liked the convenience so much that we have teamed up with Rebtel to offer our readers exclusive free minutes to trial the service. Shanghai Daily readers who go through this portal online can get 30 minutes of free calls via Rebtel to any country worldwide.

“The hardest part is getting people to understand the concept,” says Winbladh, "it’s difficult to grasp that you can just call a local number for a person abroad. But once people start using the service and store that number in their phone, it becomes very sticky as it’s so convenient.”

We welcome our reader's feedback on Rebtel services. Send your comments and experiences to online@shanghaidaily.com