Bellster Online! 

Bellster Online!

Just learned today that Jeff Pulver of Free World Dialup has started a new peer-to-peer network for voice minute swapping last week. Unlike FWD (which Pulver founded in the mid 90s and which he still runs) and Skype, Bellster would allow members to place overseas calls from phone to phone for FREE.

Side note: FWD allows free overseas voice calls from PC-to-PC while Skype allows free PC-to-PC calls and paid PC-to-phone calls.

The concept behind Bellster is that Internet connection and local telephone lines are at times idle and could be contributed to a community where other members (usally from overseas) can 'borrow' to make free calls to fixed line networks (cellular possible too) via the Internet. To make calls, one must have a voice server connected to both the Internet and the local phone line/s and he/she must donate minutes to the community.

The server runs Asterisk (a freely avaialble linux-based PBX software). Servers talk to each other via the IAX (Inter Asterisk eXchange) protocol.

With critical mass, this network could be a force to reckon with. The philosophies behind Bellster are:
- The love you take is equal to the love you make from the beatles song "The End", and
- Build it and they will come. from the "Field of Dreams"

Bellster website: http://www.bellster.net
Asterisk website: http://www.asterisk.org
Jeff Pulver's blog: http://pulverblog.pulver.com

Anyone of you running Asterisk or plans to? Please let me know by email (meikic at gmail dot com) and let's compare notes. Thanks.