How should I start this blog post? Lets start from the beginning. I am an Austrian living in the UK with friends all over the world. Mainly in Europe. I never called abroad from my mobile or at least I wanted to avoid it. Why? Well my provider Vodafone charges GBP 1.00 per minute and there is no gold coming out of me when my food is digested 
In March of this year I found a company called Rebtel. They promise FREE calls from mobiles to mobiles cross country. You need to ask your friend to call you back while you stay on the line they wrote on their website. Bullsh* I thought – Probably I just did not get it. However I did sign up and I thought the normal rates are really competitive. So if I would not ask my friend to call me back I would pay 0.01pence per minute to Austria / Germany 
/ Italy etc to a landline and 0.08 pence to a mobile – amazing rates AMAZING 
There was the day I started calling my friends FOR FREE Cross Continent Mobile to Mobile. How did this happen? Well it happened by accident. I called a friend. She lost connection (or hung up on me) and then the computer voice said: If you have asked your friend to call you back stay on the line while your friend calls you back and we connect you.
Then another friend was totally excited (I called to the States) Hey are you in New York? You are in New York You did visit me at last. I asked *HU* ? Your number you are calling me from is a New York number. Then I got it. Next call to my parents. Me: “Hey what number do you see on your display?” My parents: “Funny you ask, one from Vienna”. Me: “O.k. hang up – call this number – It will be me on my mobile.” I did not tell my parents that I will be waiting on the line (would have caused confusion) Viola – Rebtel connected us and the call was FREE Yippee – This was back in May or so – since I call my parents, my friends, my ex girlfriends and the girls I adore on a regular basis whenever I think of them totally free of charge.
BTW Rebtel just secured some funding of USD 20.000.000,00 so they will probably still be around a long time. If you have friends abroad and you are sick of a high phone bill – give them a try you are crazy if you don’t do it – crazy crazy crazy – or you have a donkey that sh* gold
See here for how it works:
See here for the rates: But again if your friend calls back HIS/HER local number the call is free (you just use your inclusive minutes to your nearest city!!! )
Like you, I have tons of friends around the world! We’ve managed to keep in touch via IM and email but nothing is as good as a long phone conversation to really catch-up on the latest news and musings.
Rebtel was THE GREATEST discovery…not only have I been set free from my PC to roam about, I can actually afford to talk for FREE from my mobile or landline with my friends worldwide. (Talk about a new concept in social networking…)
It could not be easier or better…Then again, I am preaching to the converted…
Vodafone does not block Rebtel
It is free to call the UK Rebtel number (within your minutes) The person in the video was just a poor Customer Service Agent who had never heared of Rebtel…..
Hi there – glad to hear a success story with this. So no stray charges on your cell phone bill at all?
How long is the connection time when you ask your friend to hang up and call you back?
sorry Jennifer, missed your question. Is probably too late now
No charges on my cell phone bill since I had free minutes to UK landlines (and now Chilean landlines living in Chile).. There is no huge delay. The other person hangs up and calls back.. and voiala no rip of roaming charges 
Hola André, desde Chile, estoy con rebtel y no he podido conectarme. Esto es, que tras el numero del amigo en el extranjero, rebtel asigna otro Nº que marcar, cual al intento me marca ocupado.
Rebtel, me contesta que debo insistir marcar sólo el Nº asignado, pero no pasa na’.
La pregunta es, si debo anteponer algún numero al Nº asignado o que debo hacer.
Como dato, estoy ocupando linea fija desde santiago.
Gracias de antemano
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