Pulver debuts P2P Bellster network

Digital troublemaker Jeff Pulver is at it again. This time, he's unleashed a way to use the Internet to let anyone use your phone to make a call.

And, conversely, you can place calls all over the world--often for free--by "borrowing" someone else's phone.

Jeff Pulver
Founder, Bellster

Bellster, as Pulver's new creation is called, smashes yet another telephone industry tradition. Until Bellster's release about a week ago, it was very difficult--if not impossible--to share a phone line with someone else without the phone company's consent. But now it's happening, thanks to voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, a burgeoning technology that lets Internet connections double as local phone lines. VoIP is the underlying plumbing in Bellster's system, which ultimately lets people call any type of phone.

The system is built on several groundbreaking ideas. There's the notion that people are willing to donate unused technology resources, a la the SETI@home project, which lets people contribute their computers' processing time to the search for extraterrestrials; peer-to-peer networks, through which millions of Internet-enabled devices can swap files at any time; and open-source software. The only expense is for the hardware, which can cost up to $1,000.

The technology is very new, and people in the VoIP industry are still digesting it. One analyst, who asked not to be named, said, "It sounds like a typical Pulver poke in the eye of the phone industry."

Early concerns are the expense, possible law abuses and the limited number of potential users who have the required server savvy. Typically, commentators think highly of the idea but pan the cost and the required technical sophistication. "It is, unfortunately, not for mere mortals," Alec Saunders writes on his Web log. On Slashdot, a reader offers dialogue instead of traditional commentary: "RING. 'Hello?' 'Hi, is your server running?' 'Well, you'd better catch it!'"

Bellster occupies new turf in the VoIP landscape. Among the new providers is the well-known Vonage, which sells unlimited calls from your home phone. Another type is represented by Skype and Pulver's Free World Dialup (FWD), which are free peer-to-peer telephone services. Calls are free when made among computers, but those from your PC to traditional phones cost extra.

Unlike Skype and FWD, Bellster lets users reach the public switched telephone networks anywhere in the world where there is a member gateway.

While serious technical and real-world adoption hurdles remain, the project does mark a step forward for the peer-to-peer networking model. Where most consumer applications previously have focused on sharing