Congratulations to Martin and Fon

by on February 5, 2006

Congratulations to Martin Varasavsky, CEO of Fon. Maryam and I were invited up to his house when we were in Paris and he was a gracious and interesting host. Fon sounds like an interesting concept that lets you share your wifi with other people (and add services for your friends). It was funded for $21 million by a group that includes Google and Skype. Om Malik has more info. Martin has more info on his blog.

So, are you a “fonero?”

  • RBA
    Well, no, I am not a fonero because I don't want to leave my wifi open for anyone else to use it and do "who knows what" with it. I have big problems with that and no one's answering.

    However, major ISPs play a crucial role. Mine doesn't let me knowingly share my wifi, what should I do then?

    My vote would go to an open source innitiative targetting that same thing. I said if before somewhere: FON sounds like a Napster of wifi, now, where's the bitTorrent of wifi? The concept is very attractive but in practice I still see a lot of holes.

    Regardless, with that kind of money and backers, they've got a lot of room to play around. And I mean, a lot!
  • I have made two post that should address your concerns about ISP's and Security...

    On working with ISP's
    http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/business/working...

    On handling security
    http://blog.fon.com/en/archive/technology/wirel...
  • RBA
    On working with ISPs: Glad you're working on it but no, the issue has not been addressed. You go and talk to them, you tell them is a win-win situation. In the meantime, either I do as the EULA says, or I risk going shopping for another ISP, or worst. Not to mention if I want to profit from sharing my bandwidth (what you call Bills). I don't even know how illegal that may be at this point. Like using Napster a few yeras ago and charging for people downloading the files I'm saring? Oh my.

    Your greatest uphill battle is with the ISPs and you know it, because the concept itself is brilliant. When/if you win the battle, then the issue would have been addressed. Not now. We'll be watching you :-)

    On handling security: I'm not concerned about other people accessing my home network (well, I am but that's not what I'm talking about). For my ISP, whatever bandwidth is used through my connection, that's me using it. Truth is, with FON, it isn't. And maybe I'm difficult, but I have a serious problem with that. The fact that FON declines any responsibility with regards to this - and other things - doesn't put my mind at ease either.

    Regardless, thanks for your response, and congratulations on the funding and backing.
  • With FON you can limit how much bandwidth you share. On this point we make sharing easier.

    With FON you can identify every user that connects and uses your network. If there is an issue with how your network is being used we can track it back to a individual user. So on this point, we make sharing safer.

    And just to be clear, it is not agaisnt the law to share your internet connection. Some ISP's prohibit it, but many allow it. And since the announcement many more have approached us.
  • http://del.icio.us/foneros

    there you will find a lot of stuff concerning this project

    gerhard
  • BC
    It's easy to work around the ISP terms-of-service.

    All ISPs allow end users to run VPN software. All the firmware has to provide is an encrytped VPN tunnel to some central routers provided somewhere, and it's suddenly none of their damn business what is travelling over that tunnel.

    Bandwidth is cheap, so this is cheap to do.
  • Count me in as a Fonero, as soon as I get my 25€ FON ready router :)
  • Gerry
    It just showed up here on the BBC website.
  • Hey Robert,
    A better question is are YOU a “fonero"?
    Molly
  • Statistics about the Fon's growth : http://Maps.FrancoFon.Fr
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