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.

We’d also like to send a big thank you to the equally as nice people over at AT&T.  Not too long ago, AT&T finally came to their senses and decided that is was time to allow iPhone VoIP applications to run on their 3G network.

Shortly, following that very same announcement, we got that pleasant confirmation of approval email from Apple all iPhone developers long for. So again, thank you, AT&T. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Considering it’s our first stab at the iPhone as a platform, we couldn’t be happier with the end result. The app gives all of our users instant access to all the Rebtel features that can be found on our website straight from their iPhone. Check out some screenshots from the app below.

Cheap international calling for our usual super low rates, contact management, payment processing, the ability to make seamless Double Dial calls as well as full access to your account history are a few.

In other words, it’s basically like taking the entire Rebtel website and putting it in your pocket to enjoy whenever you’re out and about and feel the urge to call internationally. Pretty sweet.

The initial response from our existing users as well as all the new ones that have discovered Rebtel for the first time on the App Store has been truly amazing. What’s even more amazing is how much better the app can get from this point on.

With having the first version of the app soaking in the lime light on the digital shelves of the App Store, we’re now able to look towards the future. This is the part where you, the beloved Rebtel community, comes in.

We’ve started a thread on our Get Satisfaction page where everyone can go in and share their ideas for future features that they’d like to see in the next version. What functionality would you like to see that would make the Rebtel app a killer for you? Head over to Get Satisfaction and share your ideas.

Lastly, to check the app head over to the App Store. If you have any questions regarding the the app you can head over to our FAQ.

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.

We have a lot of new cool stuff for you that we’ve been working on for the past year or so and things are finally starting to come together. We’ll have more on that in another post.

Anyways. Today, we’d like to talk a little bit about the recent developments on the front of VoIP applications being (or rather not being) on Apple’s AppStore. In particular one that has been developed by Google and seen immense media attention lately.

If you have an ounce of interest in what’s going on in this little world of ours (the technology and VoIP world that is), you have probably read that Apple made the decision to refuse Google’s latest iPhone application, Google Voice, entry to the AppStore. Now, you might ask yourself why we would dedicate an entire blog post to a company that seemingly starts to emerge as a direct competitor to us? The answer is simple. Sure, Google is a direct competitor with the roll-out of their Voice service. Although, the fact remains that we love Google as a company, their products and everything that they’re trying to do in the VoIP industry. Competition is good and always will be. It forces all companies to think outside of the box and try their utmost to provide their respective markets with a better product.

For a lot of people, Apple’s decision was nothing short of anticipated. Being the eternal optimists that we are, we figured that Apple might reevaluate their position considering their history of disruptive services. We all remember the inception of the iTunes Music Store, right? That was a product that revolutionized an entire industry that was, at that particular time, on life support. Apple were smart enough to recognize that opportunity and give it CPR. After that, we saw the music business basically resurrect and iTunes ultimately became the blueprint for digital music commerce.

Come 2009 and things aren’t quite as chipper as they once were. Apple’s disappointing decisions to go to bed with “the devil” has proven to hinder huge innovation developments in the VoIP industry that literally is standing outside their door knocking and begging to come in.

Now you might think referring to AT&T as “the devil” is a tad bit too harsh. If that’s the case, we feel it’s imperative to take a trip down memory lane to see just how uneager these cartels really are to embrace companies such as ourselves and Google and the subsequent technology we’re trying to bring forward.

Some of you might remember our little run-in with Verizion. Verizon didn’t seem to think that obeying one of the most vital cornerstones of democracy and the american constitution, freedom of speech, was very important.

Then, of course, we had AT&T, which we also went a couple of bare knuckle rounds with.

Last but not least, we had O2, which didn’t think it was in their customers right to use a service like Rebtel’s due to what they claimed were “capacity issues”.

Come on, really?

Since when does calling a local number on a mobile phone in 2009 cause “capacity issues” for one of Europe’s largest wireless service providers?

As you can easily make out, these people don’t exactly have a soft spot for us and honestly, who can really blame them? They’re feeling the heat and have been for a long time. If anything, their actions against us as described above prove that. Truth to be told, it can’t possibly be a good feeling realizing that you live on borrowed time and that your days are truly numbered. That’s some epiphany for you right there.

So, how’s all of this going to unfold? By the looks of it hopefully for the better. As a matter of fact, the US Department of Justice has recently initiated an investigating regarding U.S. telecommunications companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, to clarify wether or not they’re engaging in anti-competitive behavior.

Furthermore, the FCC has also raised some eyebrows of concern regarding the Google Voice rejection and decided to investigate the situation further by sending personal letters to Apple, Google and AT&T. Once thing is for sure, we can’t wait to hear what AT&T writes in their response letter.

Apple themselves have actually also done something rather peculiar that deviates from their regular practice when dealing with the developer community that, little surprising, went completely ballistic after the rejection and talked about going as far as boycotting Apple. Phil Shiller, Senior Vice President of World Wide Product Marketing, personally contacted two different developers that were outraged by the companies recent behavior. This was naturally a nice gesture, but it’s hardly enough to rectify and make up for the de facto damaged already caused.

Ladies and gentleman, the plot thickens.

Due to these recent developments, we announced earlier today that we have made the decision to give away a total of a quarter of a million free minutes to Iran. When Rebtel was founded in 2006, it was built with the vision of shrinking the world, making it a friendlier place, and to bring people from all over the world closer together by making all phone calls local. 3 years later we still stay true to that vision by doing what we believe should be expected of us not only as a company, but also as fellow human beings.

This opportunity to call Iran for no cost is available for all existing users as well as new users. No strings attached.

As a fair use policy, each and everyone that decides to redeem the voucher code will receive 15 minutes of free calls each. New users that are currently not Rebtel users will in addition also receive the usual 5 Welcome Minutes. Once redeemed, the 15 minutes to Iran will be valid for 14 days.

The voucher code will be redeemable starting today, Monday the 22nd of June, and will expire on Monday next week, 29th of June.

If you would like to help us spread the message to raise awareness and make sure as many people as possible get the chance make use of these minutes, please retweet this post with the hashtag #iranelection by clicking the button at the top of this post.

Follow these instructions if you have family or friends in Iran and want to make sure they are well:

Existing Users (15 minutes to Iran)

1. Go to http://www.rebtel.com/en/My-Rebtel/Buy-credit/
2. Click ‘Redeem now’ at the bottom of the page
3. Click the blue Rebtel heart, enter the voucher code iranelection and click ‘Redeem now’
4. Call your loved ones free of cost and make sure they are OK

New Users (15 minutes to Iran + 5 Welcome Minutes

1. Go to http://www.rebtel.com/
2. Click ‘Try Now’ and sign up with Rebtel
3. Go to http://www.rebtel.com/en/My-Rebtel/Buy-credit/
4. Click the blue Rebtel heart, enter the voucher code iranelection and click ‘Redeem now’
5. Call your loved ones free of cost and make sure they are OK

Iran Resources

To follow the developments in Iran on the web, we would like to refer you to the following resources:

- Iran Videos on YouTube

- Iran Images on Flickr

- #iranelection Twitter Search

The Dominican Republic is home turf to a number of the biggest and brightest shining stars that the Major League has to offer. Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, and of course, the New York Yankee’s power-hitting third baseman with the richest contract in baseball history, Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, are a few names that need no further introduction.

Starting from today, with a little help from Rebtel, A-Rod and everyone else living in one of our 51 Rebtel Countries are able to make super low-cost (or even completely free) calls back to their friends and family in the Dominican Republic. Regardless if you’re playing baseball or go to college, an extra motivational boost from hearing the voice of friends and family back home is always a good thing.

As the Dominican Republic now is a Rebtel Country, people in, for example New York, are now able to make Smart Calls to friends and family in Santa Domingo. They simply ask their friend – while staying on the line – to hang up and call right back using the Santa Domingo phone number displayed on the screen of their phone. Naturally, this can be done the other way around too.

Lastly, we want everyone to give the Dominican Republic a big warm welcome and wish good look to everyone competing in the Classics!

Out of all the cool stuff you wanted to see on Rebtel.com, SMS messages to Rebtel friends was one that kept popping up time and time again. Even though we love talking to people (especially when the calls are cheap or free) we get what you’re saying. Sometimes an SMS message is a better man for the job than a lengthy phone call. Therefore we would like for you to meet the newest addition to the family of Rebtel services; our SMS Beta.

With the SMS Beta you can send cheap text messages straight from your address book to Rebtel friends as well as any other random person that you have a mobile phone number to (we don’t condone random SMS messaging). If you’re eager to give this a go but don’t really know where to start, I took the liberty of preparing a short visual guide.

First off, log in to your Rebtel account. Once you have that out of the way go to your Contact List. You will now have to take a pretty big decision, namely who you will grace with the pleasure of receiving an SMS from you Once you’ve made up your mind, click on their name.

After the Contact Box has expanded, you will see a brand new option at the bottom that says ‘SMS’ and the name of your friend. Click this option to open up a Lightbox with the SMS Dashboard.

In my particular case, you can see that I have chosen to send my SMS to my Best Friend In The World. He’s the best. The drop down menu that specifies who the SMS is going out to is already defined as I previously clicked on this name. If  you would change your mind you can use this menu to pick another recipient of your message. As you go along and start typing, you will see that the character, cost and SMS counters will start ticking. If you exceed the standard SMS limit of 160 characters your message will be divided up in to two sendouts instead of one.

When you’re done typing your message, simply press ‘Send’. That’s all there is to it! Please note that you are not able to send SMS messages via Rebtel to friends and family in the U.S. This problem is naturally something that we’re working hard on to amend so plese bear with us. Lastly, since this is a Beta and all, we still have some kinks left in the chain to straighten out. If you stumble upon any funny bugs that are giving you a hard time, please do send an email our way.

It’s that time again folks - holiday season is officially here (well, more or less). All of us that work here at Rebtel like to think that Christmas is a special time of the year for a lot of our users. See, a majority of you use our service to keep in touch with friends and family when you’re away during the year doing all kinds of stuff. Maybe you’re away to attend school abroad, maybe you’re backpacking in Europe for a couple of months to widen your horizon or you might be busy working out of the country and are forced to be away from the people that matter the most to you. Christmas is a holiday when a lot of you get the opportunity to come home, step through the door and finally reunite with your loved ones after spending a long time apart.

To celebrate this we are launching our Holiday Offer. What’s special about it is that it’s primarily targeted to our existing users. Some of you have contacted us through email, Facebook and Twitter and asked us why we haven’t been giving away any sweet deals to the people that have been with us the longest through thick and thin. Well, we sure haven’t forgotten about you and this is our little present that will hopefully make you feel warm inside.

When you make a deposit of $50 we give you a little holiday bonus, 20% more talk time to be exact. If you’re not happy with that and want more, you have the option of making a $100 or $150 deposit to receive 30% or 40% more talk time than you would otherwise. Have a look below to get the idea. Doesn’t look to shabby, does it?

Lastly, we would like to thank all of you that have supported and believed in us throughout 2008. Next year will be even better, you can count on that.

From all of us at Rebtel, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Up until today you’ve been able to use the fabulous Rebtel service from 47 countries world wide. We’ve had a great time together and we love all 47 of them equally. Just as if they were our own.

Today though, is a big day for us. We’re announcing 3 brand new additions to the Rebtel family; Panama, Malta and Puerto Rico. Obviously - we’re thrilled about this. We’re hoping that you, our wonderful users, as well as our older countries that has been with us for a little bit longer will make these newcomers feel welcome. Hjalmar Winbladh, our CEO, is so excited that he even decided to learn some Spanish He’s been running around the office for the last few days shouting “El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido”.

In practice, these good news mean that all the wonderful people in Panama, Malta and Puerto Rico will be liberated at last from the tyranny of deceiving calling cards and the captivity of carriers with horrendously priced international calling rates. Thou shalt not fear - Rebtel has come to the rescue!

Naturally, if you live in any of the other 47 Rebtel countries you are now able to make Smarts Calls to friends, family or girlfriends living in any of the new countries.

Check out the rates below to get an idea of how much you’ll be able to save:

• Puerto Rico to any phone anywhere in the U.S. - $0.015 per minute.
• Panama to Colombia - $0.029 per minute to landlines; $0.095 per minute to mobiles.
• Malta to the U.K. - $0.019 per minute to landlines; $0.18 per minute to mobiles.

And for all new customers who sign up before December 18 the rates are even lower for their first 30 days of calling:

• Malta to the U.K. - $0.013 per minute to landlines; $0.126 per minute to mobiles.
• Puerto Rico to the U.S. - less than a penny per minute - $0.008 per minute to any phone.
• Panama to Colombia - $0.015 per minute to landlines; $0.067 per minute to mobiles.

To read more about our Cheapest Rates campaign, click here to read our post on the subject that touches on the subject in slightly greater detail.

As always, if you have any questions about Rebtel, be sure to check out our Get Satisfaction page.

The 2008 Crunchies is the second annual competition and award ceremony put together to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year. The Crunchies is co-hosted by GigaOm, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, and TechCrunch. Best of all, the Internet community is invited to choose who wins.

If you like our service and what we’re trying to do for telephony, please don’t hesitate casting a vote our way by simply clicking the little button above. In return we promise you better prices, greater innovations, and a cooler service. Not like you wont get all of that if you decide not to vote - but still
Thanks in advance guys, we appreciate the support!