 | | 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. | |
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 FDiskO.O?
join:2003-08-18
Israel | DOH! Will never work.  | |
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 |  DownLowNope...I Got NothingPremium
join:2001-04-25
Long Island | Re: DOH! good luck with this! | |
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|  sbrookPremium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa
kudos:4 | 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. | |
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sbrookPremium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa
kudos:4 | 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. | |
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| | 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 | |
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1 edit | 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. | |
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| | | | 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? | |
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| | |  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
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! | |
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| | 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. | |
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ieee1394Premium
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. | |
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|  click_310Eat my shorts
join:2002-12-06
Savannah, GA | Re: What was he, err, thinking? said by ieee1394: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. | |
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 sirwoogieBlahPremium
join:2002-01-02
Carleton, MI | 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. | |
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| sbrookPremium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
Ottawa
kudos:4 | Re: Fraught with abuse potential It could be just like the trojan spamming - just hijacking your phone ... and complaints will trace to you. | |
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 pikePremium,MVM
join:2001-02-01
Cleveland, OH
kudos:1 | 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
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XM411.com - Your #1 site for all things XM
XM Satellite Radio | |
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|  DaSneaky1Done wall to block them allPremium,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.
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] :: my trivial ramblings :: [ | |
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| | Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Re: Liability said by DaSneaky1D: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 | |
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| | 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. | |
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| | | 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. | |
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 ctceoPremium
join:2001-04-26
South Bend, IN | p2p based... This means it must be evil right?  | |
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| | | 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. | |
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| | 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. | |
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