By Rebtel
Nov. 19 2010

The decision by Swedish international call company Rebtel to slash 20% off their call rates to Ethiopia in December 2009 and then follow it with a further 6% reduction in February 2010 looks to have played a key role in expanding the companies user base markedly over the past twelve months.

In the twelve months up to October 2010, Rebtel have reported an annual increase of 100% in the amount of call traffic that the company is dealing with, predominantly from Ethiopians living in the US who need to keep in touch with their friends and family on a regular basis.

Operational Controller Mikael Rosengren confirmed that the positive company results for the Ethiopian market meant that it was now one of the ten largest corridors in terms of revenue for the company. He revealed that 90% of the call traffic to the African country, originates from within the United States and a significant proportion of that number are Ethiopian students who are now studying in the country.

This is ratified by further results from the study which revealed that Saturday is the busiest days for calls home to Ethiopia, when the student is more likely to have free time. In addition, there were large pockets of users based in the states of California, Virginia and Maryland as well as the cities of Washington and Minnesota, all of which have large student populations.

It is easy to see why students, often on a limited budget, would be attracted to use Rebtel for their international calling needs.. Not only do their call rates, which start from USD 0.225 per minute for contacting a mobile, to USD 0.205 per minute via a landline, offer real value, they are competitive against any other rate on offer from other companies.

In addition, further Rebtel research has found a large level of dissatisfaction from customers who used international calling cards. Many of whom feel that the cards are expensive and frequently do not give the user the minutes that they have paid for. This would be a primary consideration for any person seeking to call Ethiopia, or any other country, but is of particular importance for those, like students, who are on a strict budget.

However, it is not solely the cost of the calls and the lack of trust customers have in other forms of calling internationally that explains away Rebtel’s excellent results. Further research conducted by the company shows that they enjoy excellent customer satisfaction levels, with 95% of Rebtel customers happy to recommend the company to family or friends and 75% of them reckoning that Rebtel’s service is not only cheaper, but easier to use and of a far greater quality than their competitors.

In addition, with nearly 90% of the Rebtel customer base stating that they are happy to pass on their recommendations of Rebtel either via word of mouth, or via social networking sites and email, it seems that the company should enjoy further growth into 2011 and beyond.

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