International calling provider Rebtel (News - Alert) is seeking to raise awareness about its services during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by giving away millions of free minutes to people in China. The promotion was launched Friday, on the supposedly lucky “8/8/08” day.

 

Freebies from Rebtel include 88 free calling minutes to China, 888 free minutes for new customers, and a $130 credit to every 888^th new user.

 

Rebtel’s services, launched in 2006, provide an alternative to mobile operators’ high charges for making international calls. Rebtel’s services can be used with any mobile phone without modification or software downloads and it is absolutely free to set up a Rebtel account. Customers do not have to pay any monthly fees or connection fees. They only have to pay for the minutes used.

 

Rebtel gives its customers local phone numbers in the country where they live. Using this number, customers can connect directly with their friends, family or colleagues who live abroad. Since all the calls are local, users can call each other as often as required and talk as long as they like.

 

A customer living in San Francisco, for example, gets a local San Francisco number from Rebtel. Using this local number, the customer will be connected to his friend in China. In turn, Rebtel will provide a local Chinese phone number to the person in China to reach his friend in San Francisco. Now when the person in San Francisco calls his friend in China, he will ask his friend to call right back using the local China phone number displayed on the screen of his phone.

 

Customers interested in trying out Rebtel, and wanting to take advantage of the current promotion, should use the voucher code “888” when signing up.