Rebtel 2.0 Launches on Android as Company Reaches 15 Million Users in Advance of 'Hello Sunday'

Rebtel, the worlds second largest mobile VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company afterwards Skype, today announced the Android launch of Rebtel 2.0, its latest generation of intelligent applications designed for desktop and smartphones. The company made its Android app available on time for New Years Day, or what the company is terming 'Hello Sunday' or the Black Friday of international calling in the U.S., when people say hello and ring in the new year on a day that Rebtel *reports is 64% higher than an average day in December.

According to innovation firm Canalys, Android captures roughly 50% of the global smartphone market, with year over year shipments up 379% from 2010. Todays news is directly geared toward these users and those looking for a smart and simple solution for making free or affordable international calls and texts.

The popular introduction of Rebtel 2

Today's launch follows the popular introduction of Rebtel 2.0 on iOS in October. Since that launch, Rebtel has seen over one million downloads of its applications. The company has as well announced that it just passed 15 million users who rack up over one billion minutes in calling per year.

In the wake of tougher times and higher Christmas spending, we wanted to time the launch of the application for the busiest international calling time of the year when what people as a matter of fact want is amazing call quality at free or very cheap prices," said Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel.

For situations when the WiFi/3G connection is not good enough to sustain a call, Rebtel introduces KeepTalking, a much appreciated feature first premiered in Rebtel 2.0 for iPhone released in October. KeepTalking allows users to simply press a button on their Android devices call screen while a WiFi/3G call to seamlessly improve the connection by jumping from data to the operator network and nevertheless be able to call for free using Rebtels local numbers network. The new technology aims to increase voice quality, reduce phone bills and greatly reduce dropped calls.

Users downloading the application wont have to change their existing way of making a call on their Android device in order to realize serious savings with Rebtel. Once the application has been downloaded and the user has signed up or logged in, the app will run in the background and seamlessly intercept all calls made to international numbers whether it be from the devices regular dial pad or native contact list. Instead of being routed over the users regular carrier network, the calls will be connected with Rebtel for savings of up to 90%.

Calls to friends who are running any Rebtel application on a smartphone or PC can be made for free over WiFi/3G as then as using Rebtels local numbers network when the data connection is too weak. These contacts are labeled Free in the in-app contact list to make it simple to see whos already using Rebtel, and who you should invite. Whenever a friend or business acquaintance in a users contact list downloads Rebtel 2.0, a notification is sent to the users device and appears on the display. Rebtel as well offers SMS to any mobile phone number, with an average cost savings of in broad outline 60% over U.S. carriers.

No more contact synching or managing multiple address books. Rebtel 2.0 works with each users own contact list wherever it might live. The companys new mobile offering for Android integrates with the phones native address book and lets the user get started calling instantly.

The new Rebtel application

With the new Rebtel application, the sign up process is reduced to one single step where the user simply connects their phone to the Rebtel network. Suddenly after sign up, the user can see which friends in their contact list they can call for free or for savings of up to 90%. To download the Rebtel 2.0 app from the Android Market, please visit the following link.

*Note: In order to measure the highest call volume day of the year, Rebtel surveyed the calling history of 200,000 representative users in the U.S. on various holidays, and measured them against an average day for that month. According to the study, New Years Day was first with a 64% increase, with Christmas Day coming in second with 55%, followed by Mothers Day, which was up 14%.