I-Corps: Phone Call Passport-A Smartphone Application to Allow Free Phone Calls

最近的调查显示，目前超过50%的美国人拥有一部或多部智能手机。在全球范围内，这一趋势只会越来越大。例如，在印度，最重要的智能手机市场之一，据报道，今天的用户数量为3.3亿。目前，无论是通过蜂窝网络还是通过Skype等其他服务，国际电话都很昂贵，这导致许多人支付高昂的费用，例如青少年或学生，或者使用超过允许限制的大容量用户拨打固定电话和/或手机。作为替代方案，研究团队开发了一款智能手机应用程序(Phone Call Passport)，允许国内外用户使用对等手机上未使用的时间免费拨打或发送短信给任何号码。拟议中的应用基于这样一个想法，即通过蜂窝网络进行从手机到固定电话和手机号码的电话呼叫，如果从国外进行，仍然非常昂贵。电话呼叫护照(PCP)计划使用PCP对等网络中其他电话可用的未使用时间。特别是，提供免费电话和短信的用户会因为他们向想要拨打和/或发短信到国外的用户提供的服务而获得奖励。奖励的形式可以是优惠券、免费通话时间或当他们希望使用对等通话时间自己打电话时的优惠。这个项目创造了一条全新的途径，可以利用手机上的空闲时间。随着智能手机市场和VoIP技术的戏剧性增长，这对商业产生了重大影响。该团队将设计用户友好的跨平台应用程序，以启用电话呼叫护照，并对其进行广泛测试和验证，并为传播和商业化创造机会。

Recent surveys indicate that more than 50 % of the US population today owns one or more smart-phones. Across the globe this trend is only increasing. For example, in India, one of the most significant smart-phone markets, the number of owners today is reported to be 330M. Currently international calls are expensive, whether through a cellular network or other services like Skype, resulting in prohibitive costs for many individuals, such as teenagers or students or high volume users who would use more than the allowed limit to call landlines and/or mobile phones. As an alternative, the research team has developed a smartphone application (Phone Call Passport) which allows users abroad and at home to call or text message any number for free using unused minutes available at peer phones. The proposed application is based on the idea that performing phone calls from mobile phones to landline and mobile numbers through the cellular network is still extremely expensive when performed from abroad. Phone Call Passport (PCP) program uses unused minutes available at other phones within the PCP peer network. In particular, users that provide free phone calls and text messages receive a reward for the services they offer to users wanting to call and/or text abroad. The reward can be in the form of coupons, free minutes or preferences when they wish to use peer minutes to make calls themselves. This project creates a radical new avenue to exploit free minutes at phones. With the dramatic increase in smart-phone markets and VoIP technologies, there is a significant commercial impact. The team will design user-friendly cross platforms apps to enable Phone Call Passport, extensively test and validate it, and create opportunities for dissemination and commercialization.