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story category Bellster
Pulver's dream
(old news - 11:48AM Monday Jan 24 2005)
tags: business · networking
Jeff Pulver has introduced his latest idea, a p2p telephony service dubbed Bellster, which allows users to share their access to the public phone network with other users. "Unlike FWD or SKYPE this free network lets you reach the PSTN anywhere in the world where there is a member gateway." The concept's FAQ explains.

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Forums » Bellster
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verolom

join:2002-03-23
Eatontown, NJ

Skype could be in trouble....

If people are indeed willing to donate their unlimited LD plan lines, this could mean trouble for SkypeOut and similar service providers. I highly doubt they will for reasons of convenience and liability concerns.

FDisk
O.O?

join:2003-08-18
Israel

DOH!

Will never work.

DownLow
Nope...I Got Nothing
Premium
join:2001-04-25
Long Island

Re: DOH!

good luck with this!

sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0
This has a lot better chance of working than the old phone patch system where radio and not the internet was the intermediate transport. But phonepatch is still in use today, although less so as long distance rates have tumbled.

sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0

And watch the telcos clamp down on unlimited calls

One can see the "unlimited calling plans" go down the tubes if this were to become popular.
Tikker_LoS

join:2004-04-29
Regina, SK
·SaskTel Saskatchewan

interesting

Weird part is, couple of us at work were talking about setting something like this up ourselves

Not on such a grandiose scale tho

Just using modems that would allow us to reach our home networks, then from there out to whereever

This lead to the idea that we could share each other's lines, etc

small world

Tracker09

join:2004-02-05
New Haven, CT

edit:
January 24th, @11:46AM

Re: interesting

I'm sure that the Phone Companies who are providing the unlimited long distance to people other than their customers are going to be real happy with this. This doesn't sound legal.
bogey780

join:2004-03-19
Covington, LA

Re: interesting

Since telephone usage is a service they can amend the TOS so tha any usage by those not authorized by the seller is fraudulent use.

Remember the day when the telcos charged per phone and would ocassionally test a subscribers line for additional phone ringers?

calvoiper

join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA

Re: interesting

Well, it's phone service, so it's governed by tariffs, not some TOS on a webpage.

Additionally, resale of local phone service to the same class of customer is expressly authorized by the Telecom Act of '96--there are serious legal hurdles to any effort to ban resale. (47 USC 251(b)(1)) (Not that this will stop the ILECs from trying.)

Some ILEC monopolists are probably higher on the panic meter today because of this--but they're late to the party.

calvoiper
--
VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies!
runlevelfour

join:2002-06-12
USA

How Long?

I think we have seen enough of P2P. Any new form of "sharing" is either almost immediately set upon by those who feel they are being "infringed" upon, or is swallowed up by the current powers to augment their already gargantuan profit making machines.

In either scenario its a lose/lose situation for the public, who is ever at the mercy of corporate america who has the power, money, and resources to acquire or destroy anything that is not used to make them more money. It is quite a nasty side effect of capitalism that anything useful which does not create more wealth for the few is quashed.
ieee1394
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Washington

What was he, err, thinking?

Jeff should know better than this. The telcos aren't going to be too happy when subscribers with residential lines start burning through a certain number of minutes. This type of activity could easily be categorized as "business" use. In light of this reality I can't see how Bellster would catch on in the long term.

click_310
Eat my shorts

join:2002-12-06
Savannah, GA

Re: What was he, err, thinking?

said by ieee1394 See Profile:

The telcos aren't going to be too happy when subscribers with residential lines start burning through a certain number of minutes. This type of activity could easily be categorized as "business" use.
Do you have kids? A teenage daughter? Both my home numbers are always busy.

sirwoogie
Blah
Premium
join:2002-01-02
Carleton, MI
·Sprint Mobile Broa..

Fraught with abuse potential

OK, I want to be positive in these types of activities, but this just seem much to sensitive to abuse in a multitude of ways once it hits the PSTN:

•Telemarketers could use this to bypass any rules for PSTN transactions.
•Any CallerID information passed to the receiving party will be YOUR information, not the originator of the call. Of course, this could be disabled to not send anything (*67), but the trace of it will still come back to the one offering the call-out. I could see legal problems all over this.
•Any type of abuse of the line (prank, threats, etc) would also trace back to the one offering the call-out. I see no AUP on Jeff's site, so there is no reason he has to offer up any type of tracking mechanism. Thus, the call-out provider is left holding the legal bag.

Nobody ever though email would turn into a SPAM ridden space, but it did. Unscrupulous people will twist this "good-faith" technology and destroy it. I'm an avid FWD and Vonage user, but I just don't see this being a plausible technique.

sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0

Re: Fraught with abuse potential

It could be just like the trojan spamming - just hijacking your phone ... and complaints will trace to you.

djrobx

join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME

I don't know if this will take off

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it will work as long as it requires the Asterisk PBX to be installed on a dedicated computer with the specialized phone hardware. That's way too much of a commitment for someone to dabble with it. P2P only works when you have a massive number of people using it.

My experience with Asterisk is also that the voice quality from VOIP to a residential POTS line is horribly bad due to echo (and the subsequent attempt to cancel it). It worked well with a digital line (ISDN, T1, etc). Perhaps Digium has better cards by now, I know they were working on one with a hardware echo canceller.

It might work as a Windows app that supports telephony, the problem is the vast majority of modems have a broken voice interface.
--
\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network

pike
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-01
Cleveland, OH
clubs:
·Vonage
·AT&T Midwest
·RoadRunner Cable

Liability

I noted a glaring hole in their FAQ: No mention of liability. What if someone uses your phone for stalking, fraud, harassing, etc? That's right boys and girls, you, as the person paying the phone bill, are responsible for facilitating those activities!

-Mike
--
XM411.com - Your #1 site for all things XM
XM Satellite Radio

DaSneaky1D
one wall to block them all
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou

Re: Liability

I think that someone experienced enough to set this up would have at least a clue of the liability.

...though that may still be a stretch.
--
] :: my trivial ramblings :: [
dick white
Premium
join:2000-03-24
Annandale, VA
·Verizon FIOS

Re: Liability

said by DaSneaky1D See Profile:

I think that someone experienced enough to set this up would have at least a clue of the liability.

...though that may still be a stretch.
There are plenty of 14 yr olds (both mentally and chronologically) with the technical skills to do it but with no concept of ethics/legality. More problematic to wide adoption of this idea is the practical effect. When you start getting tired of not being able use your own phone to make or receive calls because some stranger is using your line, you'll quickly pull the plug.

dw
AboutBell
AboutBell
Premium
join:2004-12-13

Too complicated

I think this could be popular IF....if they simplify the PSTN/Internet connection. I just don't see a lot of people participating if you have to have an Asterisk Server! If all you needed was a Sipura SPA-3000 that would make it MUCH simpler.

SaskSurfer

join:2000-11-16
Regina, SK

Re: Too complicated

The initial up-take will definately be hampered by this ... but what about the long-term? Once the network is created, opening things up to non-node users as well could help 'simplify the interface', so to speak.

And as for people being willing to connect to their unlimited long distance lines (at least until the Telco's and Regulatory bodies step in to put a stop to it), it looks like they've built in provisions for the end user to limit the amount of usage/calls on their line.

Just think of all the free advertising messages you could stick in front of those phone calls that are passing through your node. Advertising could end up as a driver promoting the installation of new nodes; and yet at the same time create an annoyance which hinders the use of the service.

All in all, this will definately be one for the Telco's to keep a close eye on. There is definate potential there, but its still way to early to tell where it'll go.

ctceo
Premium
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN
clubs:

p2p based...

This means it must be evil right?

verolom

join:2002-03-23
Eatontown, NJ

Re: p2p based...

Indeed, just thinking of it is illegal

It's a good thing that mind readers are not common place yet, or we all will be in jail.
AboutBell
AboutBell
Premium
join:2004-12-13

Not Evil

I don't think it's evil or will be illegal or anything. The Telco's are likely to challenge it but I don't think much will come of it.

It needs to be simple and it needs to work. I can install an Asterisk server. A lot of people here who frequent dslreports can install an Asterisk Server. We are the minority. Without making it easy enough for the average user it will never be more popular than ham radio. A person could buy a canned Asterisk solution I suppose but it's not gonna be that cheap.
Forums » Bellster


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