THE BEST THING you can do with your iPhone is map it to a Rebtel phone number. Nothing elevates the connectivity of the iPhone better than ensuring it makes international calls at a local rate. For example, I have two daughters in the States with iPhones. I haven't disowned them for buying bling because I know a girl has to have her fashion accessories. I did castigate them for failing to ring me more after they got their iPhones and then I realised they needed something simple. They needed a local number that they could program into their iPhones and that number needed to ring me in Ireland. A quick jump over to Rebtel got me what I needed. Now both of those stateside iPhones (see sample at left) can ring my Irish mobile phone (the Nokia E90) by calling either a Phoenix or Portland phone number. I got two numbers because I know VoIP switches can get stuck.
Both Kitty and Misty have accounts where they get to make free local calls. They pay nothing to ring the stateside numbers that I set up with Rebtel. I pay around two cents a minute to take their calls and that amount is billed by Rebtel onto my credit card.
I learned about Rebtel through the testimony of Ireland's telecoms disruptor, Papa Bear Phelan. Rebtel has been offerig its impressive service for several years. In my opinion, they are the most reliable (best voice quality with no engaged tones). Rebtel is simple--you just dial a local number and it rings at the other end, just like a normal phone call. My mother in Pennsylvania occasionally asks if I have a phone in an apartment in Phoenix where her calls are diverted to Ireland. To make things simple, I tell her that's how Rebtel works--you get a forwarding service for a local phone call.
If you plan to call friends in Europe with the least impact to your wallet, you should consider Rebtel.
Rebtel makes possible cheap calls from the USA to Ireland.
Pat Phelan -- "Rebtel blows away the field on cost".
