Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Voiceglo said today it has closed a deal to distribute its Web-based telephone service through the eDonkey peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Calls between users of the eDonkey network will be free. Through upgraded calling plans, customers can make or receive calls outside of the eDonkey network using the GloPhone much like a traditional telephone.
Upgraded subscribers can opt for conventional phone features such as voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, missed call information, caller ID and conference calling with an upgraded VoIP plan for calls outside the network.
With more 2.7 million users, the eDonkey network is the second largest proprietary P2P network in the world behind Kazaa and the largest in Europe, Africa and Asia.
“With eDonkey’s dominant global presence in the peer-to-peer community, we will be able to expand VoIP offerings even further,” Edward Cespedes, president of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Voiceglo, said in a statement.
Voiceglo assigns all customers a U.S. phone number that can be used through any Internet-enabled computer anywhere in the world for local, long distance and international calling. The company was founded in 2002 by Cespedes, a former J.P. Morgan investment banker, and Michael S. Egan, the founder of Alamo-Rent-a-Car.
“We are excited to be able to help get GloPhone out to the end users,” said Sam Yagan, president of eDonkey. “Peer-to-peer technology offers software companies an unsurpassed method of distribution reaching millions of consumers willing and able to try new technology.”
P2P has been under increasing criticism from the U.S Congress as a mechanism for copyright infringement and piracy. U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced legislation last month that would permit P2P networks to be sued for various infrnging acts that are conducted on P2P networks.
