Rebtel
Encyclopedia
Rebtel is a Mobile VoIP
(Voice over IP
) provider, founded in 2006 in Sweden
by Hjalmar Winbladh
and Jonas Lindroth. The Rebtel offices are located in Stockholm
, Sweden
and Luxembourg
.
The Rebtel service allows for a new method of making international calls using your mobile phone. The technology facilitates low-cost mobile-mobile and mobile-landline international calls and works by creating local landline numbers in both the country of origin and destination and routing the international part of the call over VoIP. For the user, this means only being charged for the cost of a local call – saving the need to pay for the international leg of the call. As opposed to other similar services offering calls over VoIP, calls with Rebtel are made without any additional user-installed software, computers or Internet
connections and work with any mobile phone and carrier.
Mobile VoIP
Mobile VoIP or simply mVoIP is an extension of mobility to a Voice over IP network. Two types of communication are generally supported: cordless/DECT/PCS protocols for short range or campus communications where all base stations are linked into the same LAN, and wider area communications using...
(Voice over IP
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
) provider, founded in 2006 in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
by Hjalmar Winbladh
Hjalmar Winbladh
Hjalmar Winbladh is a serial entrepreneur from Sweden. Today he is Chairman of Rebtel, which he co-founded in early 2006. His previous venture was Sendit AB, which pioneered mobile Internet services via mobile operators in 1994. He and his co-founder, Jonas Lindroth took Sendit public in Sweden...
and Jonas Lindroth. The Rebtel offices are located in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
.
The Rebtel service allows for a new method of making international calls using your mobile phone. The technology facilitates low-cost mobile-mobile and mobile-landline international calls and works by creating local landline numbers in both the country of origin and destination and routing the international part of the call over VoIP. For the user, this means only being charged for the cost of a local call – saving the need to pay for the international leg of the call. As opposed to other similar services offering calls over VoIP, calls with Rebtel are made without any additional user-installed software, computers or Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
connections and work with any mobile phone and carrier.
History
- Rebtel was registered in 2005 by Swedes Hjalmar Winbladh and Jonas Lindroth.
- December 2006 Company launched at Innovate Europe.
- June 2006 Rebtel.com/en & service launched.
- September 2006 Rebtel $20M in external financing by Index VenturesIndex VenturesIndex Ventures is a venture capital investment firm based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in London, Jersey, and starting in 2011, Silcon Valley. The firm was founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer and Giuseppe Zocco. Since its inception, the firm has raised four main venture funds and a growth...
and Benchmark CapitalBenchmark CapitalBenchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999. Other high-profile investments include Ariba, Juniper Networks, Red...
.
- January 9, 2007 Rebtel introduces partnership with Polish portal site Onet.plOnet.plOnet.pl is the largest Polish web portal. It is owned by the Kraków-based Grupa Onet.pl S.A. It was founded in 1996 by Optimus company. According to Alexa rankings, as of December 2007, it is the 45th most popular website worldwide and the 3rd most popular site in Poland.Onet is currently owned by...
- March 2007 Red Herring announces Rebtel as the recipient of the Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.
- May 2007 Rebtel.com/es in spanish is launched.
- January 2008 1.7 million created local Rebtel numbers.
- January 2008 Rebtel becomes available in China, and adds local numbers in Shanghai.
- February 2008 Rebtel launch partnership with easyMobile.com.
- August 2008 Large operator O2O2O2, o2, O2, or O2 may refer to:- Companies :* O2 Global Network, an international network for sustainable design* O2TV, a Russian independent socially-political TV channel...
blocks Rebtel access numbers in Germany making it difficult for O2 customers to make international calls with Rebtel. Rebtel decides to go head-to-head with O2 by renewing all German number series for users.
- November 2008 Rebtel becomes an official partner to the global numbers of iNum.
- September 2009 The german Rebtel access number is blocked by the provider E-Plus, effectively rendering the service less useful for calls to partners not in the partner list. The situation is explained by E-Plus officials that "individual numbers which by generating high traffic impede the service are blocked due to technical reasons".
- October 2009 Rebtel launches the Rebtel iPhone application after a nine-month approval process with Apple.
- January 2010 Rebtel acquires part of competitor Talkster
- March 2010 Rebtel launches the Rebtel Android application
- June 2010 Rebtel reports a 100% jump in revenue in 2010 compared to 2009, increasing revenue from $8 million to $16 million. The service also loggs its one billionth minute in international calls.