The Jeff Pulver Blog: A new Social Communication Network: Bellster

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January 22, 2005

A new Social Communication Network: Bellster

Back in the Fall of 1995, with the help of some friends, Free World Dialup (FWD) version 1.0 happened. The original concept was to setup a computer, modem and let a friend (or a stranger) place a call over the internet via your computer. This was done on an experimental, non-commercial, voluntary basis and we had quite a number of people who contributed their own time, effort and energy to make it work. FWD was the world's first internet telephony network and was a pioneer in the field of PC to Phone communication services.

Back in November 2000 I once again looked at re-creating the spirit of the original FWD project but this time we tried to do it using the broadband internet. After several months of work we were able to get the underlying software to work pretty good, but our project became challenged once the hardware devices we optimized the software for, the Cisco ATA-182 were discontinued. We were live in beta in April 2001 when CNET ran the story: Can a peer-to-peer phone network fly?

Fast forward to January, 2005 and with the beta launch of Bellster.net we are finally able to offer a peer-to-peer network where members of the network can share their PSTN access with each other. This ”network” will only become a network once there is a critical mass number of people who are contributing to the success of Bellster.

Bellster is based on a couple of underlying philosophies:

(1) "If you Build it They will Come" -- Field of Dreams
(2) "The Love you Take is equal to the Love you Make" -- Beatles, "The End"

The Bellster challenge for 2005 is to find out whether or not there are still people in the world who would let total strangers place non-commercial phone calls for free in exchange for the ability to do the same thing themselves. At the moment we have a handful of active nodes around the world, and as the word of Bellster spreads, my hope is that our network will be able to deliver calls to the PSTN all around the world.

Bellster is based on Asterisk and operates as an IAX exchange.

If you are interested in experimenting with Asterisk and would like to contribute to the Bellster Social Communication Network, please feel free to visit www.bellster.net for more information and sign up today.

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Posted by jeff on January 22, 2005 12:28 AM | Permalink

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Comments

Well, neat idea, but where IS the website ??
bellster.com and .net don't exist !?!?!

Come on, an idea is only as good as the links.

Posted by: Dave at December 15, 2005 01:47 PM

Jeff
How come I can't get on the web site (www.bellster.net)?
I am very intersting to this, cuz I really feel
it should be free for people to communicate.
David

Posted by: David Wang at November 8, 2005 07:52 AM

Jeff - there's an IAXNET local dial-in gateway to me in Ann Arbor (through Telesthetic). Can I call that IAXNET gateway and dial through to Bellster, or do I have to set up my own Asterisk box? (hm, time to ask John too)

Posted by: Edward Vielmetti at January 25, 2005 09:56 PM

If this takes off, this could be the end to telecommunications as we know it.

The issue with VoIP today is terminating the PSTN call. You've solved the issue. Every person today who has pleaded with their buddy to get on FWD so they can talk for free, just found a way...

Thanks for a great idea well implemented. To mass success.

Posted by: Jay Schulman at January 24, 2005 09:18 PM

What a snap - I created an account - provisioned one of our Asterisk boxes and had calls up and running in less than 5 minutes -

What a great idea.

Posted by: Mark at January 23, 2005 05:19 PM

Needs a Help link, badly! I just signed up (cool idea, I'd like to be involved) and can't figure out how it works -- making helping a bit difficult! I look forward to evolution of the site.

Posted by: Crystal at January 22, 2005 01:41 PM

Very nice program... But how can I call worlwide?

Posted by: Vadim at January 22, 2005 09:48 AM

To know that I’m in contact with a guy like you… “cool” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

You definitely have some awesome ideas. I certainly wonder if/how this will work out.

Posted by: Ralesk Ne’vennoyx at January 22, 2005 01:22 AM