THE BOOK of Kells may not be the only attraction on Trinity College Dublin's campus this summer as telecoms researchers conduct a public trial of a low-cost internet telephony system, writes John Collins.

Metakall, developed by Trinity's Department of Computer Science, enables calls to be made over Wi-Fi networks and could potentially become an alternative to cellular networks based on the GSM standard.

Prof Donal O'Mahony, the project director for Metakall, said that although it is currently possible to make calls from a mobile over Wi-Fi networks, the key innovation was the ability to purchase the small quantities of network access needed to make calls.

"The missing link has been the ability to move between hotspots," says Prof O'Mahony. "We have developed a payment method that bypasses the need to buy day passes for hotspots, which would negate any savings you would make on calls."

Following the public trial the Metakall team will seek to do commercial deals with major hotspot providers that will enable them to receive a small payment for each call made over their network. Hotspot operators will only have to make a small configuration change to their network to start receiving revenues, said Prof O'Mahony.

Metakall will also try to do deals with manufacturers to get its software pre-installed on mobile phones.

For the public trial Windows XP and Vista laptops will be supported, while a prototype has been developed that will run on Google's Android operating system for mobile phones.

"This is a highly dynamic market and we designed the Metakall software to move easily onto any kind of handset or gaming device that may appear over the coming months," said Prof O'Mahony. "Put simply, if a device uses Wi-Fi, our software can be used on it."

Those interested can sign up at www.metakall.com. Once registered, users will receive credit which will allow them make free calls over Trinity's Wi-Fi network. Skype, Fring and Sip-based internet calling programmes are supported.

Ultimately the team hope to be able to offer international calls for as little as 5c per minute, as an alternative to using a mobile operator.

Last year Metakall received €400,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland for the initial development of the new technology.