PRESS RELEASE
Swedish mobile VoIP provider Rebtel have announced that they are set to decrease their international call rates to Ethiopia from the 1st December 2011.
As of that date, the cost of calling the country with Rebtel internationally will fall by almost a quarter from $0.2050 to $0.1590 per minute.
Ethiopia is an important market for Rebtel
This announcement is just the latest in a raft of cuts to international call costs to the country announced by Rebtel over the past few years. In December 2009, Rebtel announced that they were slashing their initial rate by 20% and then three months later, in February 2010, the rates were again cut by a further 6%.
Since October 2009, the Ethiopian market has proven to be a crucial one for the company. Rebtel has seen an increase in international call traffic to the country of over 400% in that two year period. That increase has meant that the Ethiopian call market is now the fifth largest destination in terms of call volume for Rebtel.
Rebtel pricing manager Mickael Rosengren also revealed that 90% of the calls made to Ethiopia originate from the United States and that the average length of an international call with Rebtel to the African country is around nine minutes.
This sustained growth in the number of users making calls with Rebtel to Ethiopia, not to mention many other destinations, has allowed the company to pass on the savings it makes to them, through the new price cuts.
Lowest rates on the market
Rebtel are able to keep call costs lower than their competitors are by harnessing the power of the Internet. Rather than transmitting calls by expensive telephony lines under the sea, Rebtel transmit the call digitally via the Internet, ensuring the cost of the international part of the call is much lower.
The result of this innovation is two-fold, firstly the quality of the calls is much better and secondly, using the Internet to transmit the calls means it is a much cheaper way of staying in contact than using traditional phone lines or satellites.
Strong US presence
It is interesting to note Rebtel have a strong US base of clients who call Ethiopia, and many other countries on a regular basis. Of course, part of that is that the US has a large percentage of Ethiopians living on US soil, but equally important is the fact that Rebtel have nurtured a growing base of customers in the US, who are impressed with the value of the service and the quality of the calls they receive.
From the 1st December 2011, these people will continue to receive a great service from Rebtel, but now at an even cheaper price than ever before.