The news will be good news to people planning to visit Croatia as it will make it both easier and cheaper for them to phone home during their stay.

Hjalmar Winbladh, co-founder and president of Rebtel, the company providing the service, said: "We started Rebtel because we wanted to do something good for the consumer - connect the Internet and standard mobile phones so people wouldn't have to pay the operators' rip-off rates for international calls."

The services are compatible with any mobile handset and don’t require any software or other options. Users also don’t need to switch their current cellular plans, or even operators.

The service is free for all users who register for a Rebtel account. After registering, users will receive 10 free minutes to try out the service and will, after that, only pay for the actual minutes they utilize.

Rebtel gives someone living in Zagreb a local Zagreb phone number that will connect them to the person they want to talk to in Rome. And Rebtel gives the person living in Rome a local Rome phone number to call their friend in Zagreb.

Once a user is signed up, they must enter their mobile number and the mobile number of the persons they would like to connect to. The system then creates local numbers for both mobiles, and sends them via Short Messaging Service to both the provided numbers. Users then save the numbers on their phones and every time they want to talk to the other person, dial that local number to reap the cost benefits.

Rebtel is a global communications company for individuals and businesses that make international calls. With Rebtel it's possible to call any phone, anywhere in the world, for just pennies per minute. Rebtel's services can be used with any mobile phone without modification or software downloads.

http://www.rebtel.com/en/