VoIP User
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VoIP User was a community-driven and financed SIP based
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...
network. The project's aim was to allow users to experiment with VoIP by providing opportunities to work with SIP and IAX2 devices.


History

VoIP User was created by Dean Elwood and Tjardick van der Kraan in July 2003. The VoIP User website became unavailable in late 2011 due to a major data loss. Despite a short notice promising a rebuild it eventually failed to resolve to a destination in November 2012. However, as of December 2012, existing SIP accounts at sip.voipuser.org are still operational. As of July 2023, the site is unavailable.


Features

The VoIP User network was designed for a community environment, making it different from many other VoIP networks. One key distinction was that users could call
PSTN The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The PSTN is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local teleph ...
phone numbers through VoIP User's PSTN gateway without call charges. This was possible because calls to VoIP User’s numbers generated a small revenue called the "termination charge", which was added to a community account. Outbound calls then used this accrued revenue. If users maintained a balance between incoming and outgoing calls, this account remained steady. There was a limit on the routes through the VoIP User PSTN gateway, allowing only calls to countries that cost 2.5p/min or less. This primarily covered landlines, with some mobile phones included. Each call had a maximum duration of 10 minutes. The call rates to different locations were determined by VoIP User’s PSTN line providers, causing fluctuations similar to those seen with commercial international telecommunication companies. These variations could be influenced by factors like currency exchange rates and commercial negotiations. Unlike commercial providers, VoIP User aimed to break even rather than profit, a concept termed "minute neutral". Information on calls routed by the VoIP User network was available on their analytics page. Members could get a UK non-geographic phone number for free, which could be directed to any landline globally or specific VoIP devices. VoIP User was a member of ITSPA, the self-regulating body for the VoIP industry. It complied with the UK number portability scheme.


Technology

VoIP User supported
Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...
(SIP) for both incoming and outgoing calls and
IAX2 Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX) is a communications protocol native to the Asterisk private branch exchange (PBX) software, and is supported by a few other softswitches, PBX systems, and softphones. It is used for transporting VoIP telephony sessi ...
protocol for incoming calls. It also supported SIP SIMPLE for Instant Messaging and Presence. A wide variety of customer equipment was used on the VoIP User network including desktop VoIP phones, softphones, mobile phones (using Fring on the Apple iPhone and Windows Mobile devices and in-built Wi-Fi functionality in
Nokia E series The Nokia Eseries consists of business-oriented smartphones running Symbian OS, with emphasis on enhanced connectivity and support for corporate e-mail push services, as well as enterprise-styled products and many featuring QWERTY keyboards. All ...
),
ATAs ATAS may refer to: *Academic Technology Approval Scheme *Academy of Television Arts & Sciences *AIM-92 Stinger, (aka Air To Air Stinger) air-to-air missile * Association of Top Achiever Scouts See also *Al-Attas (disambiguation) Attas or al-Attas ...
and open source switches and PBXes like FreeSWITCH and
Asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
. VoIP User enabled these devices to be mapped to UK non-geographic numbers (typically 0844 or 0870) that have a per minute call rate low enough to fit in with VoIP User’s mode of operation. As an experimental network, several software vendors and private authors tested their SIP devices using the VoIP User network. By January 2009, there were over 250 SIP User-Agents known to VoIP User. In 2012, the iNum initiative was launched, creating a +883 country code (dubbed "Earth Area Code") that was intended to route calls for free (on-net) or low cost (from PSTN) irrespective of geographic location of the caller and callee. VoIP User was one of the handful of organisations signed up to this from the outset.


References


External links

* {{Official website, http://www.voipuser.org/
Status page





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