[Asterisk-Users] Free WWT (WorldWideTelco): Utopia, or just a matter of organization?

[Marconi Rivello]

Kevin:
I see your point, and I agree with a great part of it. But, if you
need to use your phone, and the line is busy because of "a bunch of
Brazilian people", you can just use your neighbor's, for example. Or,
if you have only one line, and you and your
brother/sister/wife/whatever wants to use the phone as well, you can
use other peoples' phones...

The emergency call isn't a problem. Just unplug the FXO and connect
the regular phone, or use an extension, or have asterisk setup to
disconnect whoever is using the Zap interface when you dial an
emergency number...

Those things are not a problem. The abuse, misuse and such could be a
problem. And I do believe there must be a central management. And
asterisk has what it takes to register activities, billing support,
etc.

Stanaphone gives it's users real phone numbers, from which they can
place and receive calls. If they do that, requiring ONLY email address
to sign in, there are legal ways to protect the phone owner from
malicious use.

I do believe in this idea... Just need other people willing to
organize and help, or to give technical and/or legal reasons to forget
about it...

William: I do believe in that too. If you share yours, and I share
mine, it becomes ours.

PS: I'm B.Sc. in computer science, and currently finishing my master's
(also in CS, computer architecture and operating systems). I think I
can help a lot, but alone I can't do anything.

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 17:15:55 -0400, William Suffill
<william.suffill at gmail.com> wrote:
> Best bet for such a CoOp would be a give and take relationship. If
> they also give you access to something of theirs they are more likely
> to treat your stuff with care as well.
> 
> But it is risky.
> 
> On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 22:11:37 +0100, Kevin Walsh <kevin at cursor.biz> wrote:
> > What you're suggesting is possible, but has its drawbacks:
> >
> >     1. A home user who has one phone line, and opens it up to the
> >        world for local calls, may find that the line is in use by a
> >        bunch of Brazilian people when he goes to use it, or tries to
> >        make an emergency call.
> >
> >     2. Your phone line may be used to make crank calls, or to place
> >        fake pizza orders etc.
> >
> >     3. A wide range of other issues that seem to have slipped my mind.
> >
> > This sort of thing is best organised centrally, rather than by a
> > bunch of people opening up their phone system to the world.  A central
> > body would have control over who gets to use the service, and can
> > cancel a subscription, and take more effective action, if abuse is
> > proven.  A central body would also be better prepared to trace who
> > made that crank call.
> >
> > Although it's a nice idea, it's not really practical, in my opinion.
> > That sort of setup is best left to companies who want to allow "local"
> > dialout from any office, rather than as a publicly-accessible effort.
> >
> > Of course, if you want to open up your phone line then don't let me
> > stop you. :-)  You could persuade a bunch of people you know to do the
> > same, but I'd advise against opening up such a network to the unwashed
> > general public.