TV TO GET JOOST UP

Over the past few years it has become clear that the best way to shift digital content around the internet is to use peer-to-peer networking.

Some of the most disruptive services to have appeared – from Napster and Kazaa to Skype and Bittorrent, employ this system of delivery, which isn’t reliant on the traditional server-client model, where a computer connects directly to a server to receive data.

Instead, “peers” in P2P networks take on the role of both client and server, sending and receiving information in small chunks among a community of users. The genius of the system is that it gets more efficient as more people join the network.

The theory underpinning P2P networking has been around for decades and doesn’t just apply to the sharing of information. Internet bandwidth and computing power can also be distributed through P2P networks.

Web entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstroem and Janus Friis, know the power of P2P better than anyone else. They founded both Kazaa, the file sharing network and internet telephony service Skype, which they sold to internet auction giant eBay in 2005 for US$2.6 billion.

Now they want to apply the same formula to internet TV, using P2P to spread popular programmes among internet users.

Their new service Joost, which is due for public release midyear, will distribute digitised versions of popular TV shows via P2P. Joost will send the content out from its servers initially and let it profligate through the network. The pair claim anti-piracy provisions built into Joost mean the programmes can’t be copied. That’s an important point. Both Kazaa and Napster, the file sharing system that brought P2P networking mainstream in 1999, were the target of devastating legal action by the entertainment industry, because of the illicit trading of music and videos that took place over their networks.

Skype avoided the copyright issue with its P2P telephony and Joost will develop with the cooperation of content providers who agree to send their programmes out to the network.

Those programmes will feature about two or three minutes of advertising per hour, according to Joost. The software used to access the service has been built using open-source code, so developers can easily add plug-ins to Joost.

The genius of the system is that it gets more efficient as more people join the network.

P2P turns the supply and demand model on its head. The more popular the content is in a P2P network, the faster it is disseminated and the more likely you are to get hold if it yourself. Only the complicated nature of international TV broadcast rights deals can get in Joost’s way, should the audio and video quality of the digitised programmes prove to acceptable to the masses.

What I like about Joost is that it’s unlikely to become the next Youtube.com, laden with user-generated video of dubious quality. In a recent Wired magazine article, the creators said more conventional TV programming will be the focus of Joost, which will still have the community aspect inherent in P2P networking.

Of all the new web services to have emerged in the past few years, Joost has the potential to be among the most useful and exciting of them and give those of us disillusioned with broadcast TV something to go online for.

Skype skips NZ in plans for new local calling deals

New Zealand has been left out of plans by internet call provider Skype to offer local calling packages in 24 countries using its free software-based service.

Australia, which is a key market for Skype, will get the new domestic service, which will charge subscribers a flat monthly fee and a one-off "flag-fall" charge when calls to landlines and mobile phones are connected.

Skype Pro subscribers will still be able to make free calls to other Skype users and will not need to install any more equipment - an internet connection and computer, the Skype software and a microphone or Skype-compatible phone are all that is required.

The timing of Skype Pro's launch and its pricing has yet to be confirmed, but Skype executives have confirmed that the company will seek to charge less than ?5 ($9.50) a month for the service and around (?0.039) per call.

That would allow heavy callers to save on calls to landlines and mobiles by avoiding per-minute charges.

The Skype Pro service is mainly being extended to European nations, however Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia have been thrown into the mix.

One possible reason for New Zealand's exclusion is the presence here of free local calling. Telephone users in many other countries pay a per-minute rate for making local calls.
With no staff on the ground to ensure quality of service in many of the countries in which it operates, it is unclear what customer service or quality levels Skype Pro subscribers can expect.
Skype's spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

While New Zealand Skype users can currently buy SkypeOut dollars to make calls to landlines and mobiles, the service faces stiff competition from VoIP services offered by local internet providers.

Slingshot's iTalk service offers internet telephony that allows free calling between broadband subscribers and calls to landlines nationally and in many other countries at 5c per minute. A monthly subscription of $10 is also charged.

Xnet's pricing for its VFX internet telephony service is similar. However, Skype's popularity as a free calling service and the one-off call charges may make it popular in the countries it is offered in.

Skype Pro subscribers will also get a free voicemail service and a discount on buying a SkypeIn number, which allows users to receive calls from regular phones wherever they have access to an internet connection.

Skype last month launched a calling service in the US and Canada that allows unlimited calls within North America for a flat fee of US$30 a year. Skype options

For Kiwis: Free calling from computer to computer using a broadband connection, Skype software and a microphone or headset.

Free calling using a wireless Skype phone from the likes of Philips, Vtech or Linksys, which connects to your computer and can receive regular phone calls as well as Skype calls.
Toll calls to fixed line and mobile numbers locally and internationally using SkypeOut dollars purchased with a credit card. Call forwarding and voicemail are possible with SkypeIn numbers, but these are not currently offered in New Zealand.

FEEDBACK:

From Frank

You can't realy blame Skype for by passing NZ.They are in for the money. In NZ you can't make money out of local calls! It's free. That is a big hunk out of the income. I have been using Skype for calls to Holland and Greece it save many dollars over the Xmas.I tried it to Nelson and I find a lot more Echothen in overseas calls.

From Hans

A fierce competitor of Skype is VoipBuster which offers a much better and cheaper service then Skype . In addition it has a Direct Calling facility by which the normal landline phone set is used . It offers free call to 40 different countries which includes New Zealand .There is a charge of 5 Eurocents per call , unlimited talking time . The other party does not need a computer to be connected to the caller. In addition if the call is placed from your computer there is neither a connection nor time charge . check it out at www.voipbuster.com