Rebtel Hits 15 M Users Worldwide, 2011 Revenue Jumped 55% To $60 M
It's easy to think that Skype is the only kid on the block, but its VOIP competitors are hitting significant numbers. Rebtel, the world's second largest VOIP network, announces today that it has hit 15 million users worldwide and has increased revenues by more than 55% in 2011 to $60 million in revenue. The company attributes this to its transparency, honesty, and new innovations, such as the KeepTalking technology that lets users switch seamlessly between between WIFI and 3G if the smartphone app senses the connection quality is deteriorating. In comparison to Rebtel's 15 million users, Skype has 663 million registered users as of September 2011.
Freephoo 2.0 Gets Social Media Integration And HD Audio
Swedish VoIP startup freephoo has updated its app with a bunch of new features that include Facebook and LinkedIn integration, as well as HD quality audio. The update is currently available for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch, with later releases planned for Android and the iPad.
Danish VOIP Service Vopium Offers First Wi-Fi Calling App For Blackberry
In more Scandinavian VOIP news, Vopium from Denmark has released the first Blackberry calling app that allows users to make cheap phone calls phone calls over Wi-Fi or their existing network coverage. While Skype is clearly the market leader in VOIP technology, other players like Rebtel and Vopium have sprung up claiming cheaper calling rates and better integrated experiences.
Freephoo Takes On VoIP Giants
Sweden-based Freephoo is a fairly new entrant to the fiercely competitive VoIP market. Going up against the likes of Skype and Rebtel, Freephoo is very similar in concept, offering free calls through 3G/WiFi and low-cost “premium” calls to mobile or landline numbers. The company does have some additional tricks up its sleeve though.
Rebtel Launched A Lot More Than Just Free iPhone Calling
A couple of weeks ago we covered Rebtel and their improvement to their iPhone application. Little did we know that last week they came out officially with a whole lot more than just free calls between iPhone users, as we titled the post. Rebtel has announced some cool new technologies to their application as well as making the free calls platform independent.
Rebtel Adds Free International Phone Calls For iPhone
Rebtel has taken a step forward into becoming an even more attractive company on the VoIP industry. The Swedish company announced yesterday that they have released a new version of their iPhone app that will allow users to make free phone calls to each other. The requirement is though, that both of the users are using the Rebtel application and are on Wifi or 3G. The new update has also added a few nifty updates to make the use even more simpler and in doing so the company has taken, in my opinion, its biggest steps to catering to the online community in a more integrated way.
Microsoft, Not Facebook Or Google, To Acquire Skype For $7B
We reported a few days back regarding the possibility of the VoIP service, Skype being acquired by either Facebook or Google. While that rumor was still blazing across the Web new rumors add up, with the latest hinting at Microsoft being a very strong contender in the race to acquire Skype.
Rebtel Moves To Lower Costs In International SMS Traffic
Just before Easter, Rebtel has announced that they are moving into the international SMS space with the launch of the ToIP (Text-over-IP) service. With this two groups of clients can take advantage of cheaper international SMSs. First, obviously the consumers using Rebtel's services are one group, but also app developers who require sending of international SMS as part of their service can also take advantage.
Rebtel Continues With Its Record Breaking Spree; Reaches 10 Million Users
Rebtel continues to grow by leaps and bounds and set to continue with the same as per its recent growth. The company announced that it has crossed the 10 million users globally, continuing with its high riding performance lately. As per the current statistics Rebtel is growing almost five times faster than Skype the leading VoIP service provider. Rebtel has increased its revenue by over 120%, exceeding beyond $40 Million in 2010 and given how it has grown, Rebtel is in line to double the same and push the revenue to $75 Million by the end of the current year.
Anyfi Networks Introduces New Revenue Model For ISPs With Easy Wi-Fi Over IP Roaming
Swedish startup Anyfi Networks has come out of stealth mode and announced Anyfi.net, a new Wi-Fi roaming solution. The solution allows Internet service providers (ISP) offer consumers the same automatic Wi-Fi user experience both at home and on the go - users can automatically and securely always connect to the same Wi-Fi access point.
The solution is based on a custom piece of software ISP can install (automatically over-the-air in most cases) into their Wi-Fi hotspot devices, to make the hotspots function as a radio gateway (or access point). The access points direct the raw Wi-Fi radio traffic securely over the Internet to a server in the cloud.
This way, when connecting to a hotspot where Anyfi.net software is installed, users will always be virtually in their home network, without having to login to any new local Wi-Fi network (no passwords are asked after the very first login to the home network). This means the users will also have a fully secured connection, even if the hotspot itself would be untrusted or even in an attacker's control. The solution is also very simple for the end users, as it does not require installation of any new software to the consumers' devices, thus working on any Wi-Fi client device (like smartphone) out-of-the-box. Check out the video below for more info.
Global Call Stirs Up The Market In Iceland
During my visit to Iceland earlier this week I met with a local VoIP company called Global Call. While there are many VoIP companies around, Global Call had managed to arouse some serious interest and hate towards them. First of all, many of their clients like them for their low rates where as the other telcos seriously hate them for competing with them. I talked to Benedikt Bjarnason and Höskuldur Darri Ellertsson about their business and how they're doing.
Rebtel Being Blocked Again In Germany
Rebtel, the Sweden-based VoIP company, is being blocked again in Germany by E-Plus. Rebtel is letting E-Plus bypass their foreign calling rates by giving a cheaper alternative to calling expensive foreign numbers - through VoIP. Alexander Drewniak wrote about the incident in the company blog.
It seems this is an annual issue with Rebtel. They were blocked in Germany last year as well, exactly around these times of the year. Last year it was O2. Needless to say, but this sort of activity is against EU regulations and also the consumer contracts with E-Plus.
E-Plus is the third largest operator in Germany, so the problem isn't a small one. Furthermore, Alexander has written the blog post that Rebtel has some 3 million customers who will want to defend their rights for cheaper phone calls. I'm sure E-Plus will get their fair share of contacts from consumers in the coming days if they won't resolve the situation to Rebtel's favor.
Skype Spear Heading A Bigger Change
Whatever you say about the materialized synergies of Ebay and Skype after Ebay paid $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock in 2005 to acquire the IP telephony trail blazer, Skype is currently really making me smile by changing the landscape.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the spiraling global economics outlook, Skype last year earned US$550 million in revenue, a 44 per cent rise, year on year. During the last ArcticEvening that we held in Tallinn, Stem Tamkivi, Skype's Chief Evangelist, told me during the panel that interestingly Skype actually saw the economic downturn coming quite early as their usage started to rise like it has not risen in years.
Not only that, according to PCWorld, Skype maintains that separate research points to 95 per cent of business users saving money using it, with about a third cutting their phone bills by half. Almost 80 per cent of the survey of 'Skype for Business' users, showed that nearly 80 per cent had seen an increase in productivity and were working closer with their co-workers because of using Skype ... [And] the research shows that some 62 per cent of business subscribers were using Skype to better communicate with their customers. Some impressive figures. For us, here at ArcticStartup, this is clear sign of the times.
Mark my words. If it wasn't clear to you before that IP Telephony was taking its next significant step speeded up by the economic belt tightening in the firms, now it should be crystal clear and I believe we see sigficant even if gradual changes very soon in the way small businesses and individual employees start to exploit this opportunity in cross border communication.
I already personally make 100% of my business calls to Tallinn via Skype. Many firms in Estonia have even a separate Skype button on their website to contact them via Skype. This is surely something we could take upon and start running our business more wisely, not only across the Scandinavia and Baltics, but globally.
Yes, some still claim it does not cut it when it comes to the quality of the sound, and you just can't afford to have a bad connection when you're talking to customers. A fair point. But Skype 4.0, should now offer higher quality audio, through 'super wideband audio' and a new bandwidth manager for video calling.
And we're not alone in our praise. The Finish giant, Nokia, has also made a big move. On Tuesday Nokia announced that they are planning to fully integrate Skype into their devices:
The first Skype-enabled Nokia N97 devices will be rolling out from the third quarter. Using Skype on your S60 device isn’t new, but the level of integration with the service and the device is. Skype won’t be running as a separate application, but actually plugged directly into your contacts...
Congratulations for both companies and especially to the users. I have high expectations and it makes me hopeful seeing Nokia having the balls to stand up to the operators. The same enabler that works for small businesses can do much more for the developing countries, which are exactly the markets where Nokia is strong. This announcement alone could mean a bigger chance towards a higher quality of life over time to many people in developing countries than a whole lot of World Bank projects together. Yes, there's a long way to go and now for example the WiFi hotspots are few and far in between in the least developed countries, but there's still a lot of people who can benefit from this from South America to Africa.
Skype Founders Backing Inkspin1 Into Video Telephony
Toivo Tänavsuu has posted a blog post at The NextWeb site about a video telephoning solution being backed by Skype founders. The project is being run under the name of Inkspin1. The service itself is trying to bring free online telephony to the everyday life of people through television. Inkspin1 is currently being hatched in the Ambient Sound Investments incubator.
The goal of the project is to make the service as simple to use as possible. “Today, we have a solution for computer users. Yet, for an average home user, video calling is too difficult and thus they are not taking advantage of the opportunity. Our goal here is to make such calls equally easy for kids as well as parents. So that if people know how to turn on the TV and change channels, they would know how to make video calls,” Martin Villig, the leader of the project explains.
The product development is carried out in Estonia, but the software development is being worked on in Beijing, China.Villig says that the amount of coders needed for a job this wide are more plentiful in China than in Estonia. Also in China they are closer to the vendor manufacturers that are expected to partner with Inkspin1 to integrate the necessary devices to their televisions to enable Television Video Telephony. The unit in China is being run by a Finn, Jussi Nyfelt, who has been working for Nokia in China.
Inkspin1 is still very much at a design stage as Villig states that the service is expected to be up and running in one to two years. Inkspin1 is currently recruiting lots of different talents.
It's interesting to see ASI working hard on bringing a consumer service to the masses through better usability. The idea itself is nothing new, but then again it's all in the execution. I'm guessing there are tons of ideas like this waiting to be improved. Yet further proof that you don't always have to come up with a new idea to become an entrepreneur.
Rebtel no longer blocked in Germany
We wrote about Rebtel, the Sweden based VoIP company, a while back how their phone numbers were blocked in Germany by O2. Today, Alexander writes they no longer are blocked in Germany. Alexander thanks the individuals who blogged about this, tweeted, sent Facebook messages, e-mailed and personally called the CEO of O2 about issue.
He does not give out details on how the problem eventually got resolved, but I believe the large amount of consumer action that ignited around the issue did result in the positive outcome.
Swedish Rebtel being blocked in Germany
Rebtel, a Swedish and Luxembourg based startup offering cheap international calls over internet, is pushing itself hard to conquer the VoIP market. Some might say that even a bit too aggresively as their phone numbers were blocked in Germany by O2.
However, as Alexander Drewniak writes in his blog post, this sort of activity is against EU regulations. He is also asking customers of O2 to send an e-mail or contact Jaime Basterra the "boss in Germany" about this and let the company know how the customers feel about this sort of activity. He goes on to make a Churchill type speech regarding the future:
The fact remains, old operators will always cling on to their decreasing margins, lock-in contracts, hidden charges, big offices, expensive TV-commercials, and out-dated methods but they cannot stop the future of calling. When internet now meets telecom, operators are going to have to change or die. Internet stands for transparency, consumer value, openness and change. Values that clash against the business models of all telecom operators.
It'll be interesting to see how this works out. We'll be following the activity closely.
