Popular Telephony, Inc., a telecommunications middleware company, today announced Peerio444, which is a VoIP application powered by serverless peer-to-peer technology.
Today’s announcement of Peerio444 marks the company’s introduction of a consumer application for serverless peer-to-peer telephony, with plans to introduce a separate, competitively priced enterprise application based on this technology by late June.
The company is offering Peerio444 as a free download and can be used to place PC-to-PC phone calls. The current version is still in preview mode as they finalize the testing process.
According to the Q&A featured on the company’s Web site, Popular Telephony is the first to integrate true peer-to-peer technology in a telephony product. The company’s technology enables Peerio444 users to place calls over a PC connection without the need for servers — something that no other company is currently offering.
Consumers using a Windows or Linux operating system can download the Peerio444 application onto their personal computers (a Mac version will be released later this year). The interface provides users with features such as voice mail, call waiting, call hold, call transfer, and plans for future applications include contact management and filter features.
Application developers can utilize the open source application and the closed Peerio444 core library to create an enhanced peer-to-peer application for voice communications, but the source code will not work in embedded systems and will be limited to PC use (x86 and PowerPC). If developers are interested in creating an embedded application based on Peerio444 technology, they will need to obtain a commercial license.
Unique among the peer to peer telephony set, Peerio444 users are not limited to calling only other Peerio444 users. They may call a user of any standard VoIP application and any number — including mobile phones, 800 and international numbers — with Peerio444. To call a PSTN number, users simply enter the number into the Peerio444 interface and click on the “444” button (or enter telephone number in a command line) to connect the call.
According to Dmitry Goroshevsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Popular Telephony Inc., “We anticipate that within ten years there will only be peer-to-peer calls placed over the telephony network, making it the de-facto standard for next generation telecommunications. Built on open standards and inspired by the principles of true peer-to-peer computing, we expect the enabling technology behind Peerio444 to become a basic platform for peer-to-peer telecommunications. Peerio444 will be forever free to consumers and is phase one of Popular Telephony’s plan to become the leader in peer-to-peer telephony.”
