Martin Varsavsky’s Fon [es] is rapidly gaining momentum. The idea is simple: share your bandwith with other Fon users. You can choose to share your bandwith in exchange for the bandwith of others (the ‘Linus model’), or you can charge others for access to your bandwith (the ‘Bill’ model).
The sharing is done through WiFi access points enabled with special Fon software and an external antenna. The company can provide you with Fon-configured access points, or you can use your own and install yourself the software on it and connect a secon antenna. If you don’t have a nice broadband connection, Fon can also provide you with a 2 Mbps ADSL connection for 30 ?����, including a WiFi router and a static IP address.
It strikes me like a great idea, beautiful in its simplicity. Many of us have more bandwith that we can use at home, but we lack WiFi in public spaces and while travelling. With Fon you will be able to profit from your internet access when you are away from home, because you will have WiFi access to the internet through the access points of other Fon users. No more expensive and uncomfortable connections through 3G phones.
It is also interesting that the 80% of people that have expressed interest in joining have chosen the Linus model, according to Martin. There is a big demand for more WiFi in public spaces, and no one seems to be addressing it (yet).
For the moment they seem to be targeting only the Spanish market, but hopefully they will extend to other countries soon. Martin has been recently talking to Mangrove, the VC company that financed Skype and they seemed very positive.
It is going to be very exciting to watch this project unfold.
(via Enrique Dans)
6 comments ↓
Presumably this works if there are people living where other people wish to work. An unusual situation for UK cities, but not for Spain I take it?
You raise an interesting point, Matt. I suppose in certain areas it will work ok, but it is true that there are not so many people living in some central areas. On the other hand, perhaps some offices or shops will want to share their bandwith, in which case it will work perfetct.
One point is the posible saturation in certain places in the city. I hope not to be the nearest wifi net from a popular park here!
Another point… Spanish’s internet providers had doubled two times the bandwitch recently, but they didn’t doubled twice their infrastructure!! Today we have 2Mbps and 4Mbps ADSL in Spain, but aren’t full operative. Try to connect at 8pm and you can see your download speed is notably reduced.
I’m not sure this idea will survive internet’s evolution. But, of course, everybody is trying to make money with wifi nets. For example, in my hometown, my father (teleco’s engineer) and a local internet provider had made a big wifi net covering all the city and some near mountains, using repeating antennas, offering everybody a cheap conection. In the other side of the world, Google is testing some wifi nets. Now is the “hot” moment!
I see that in your hometown there is no need for Fon, Julio. Do they charge for the WiFi in your hometown? Or is it a public net? I find it a really cool idea to have the whole town connected.
And yes, you are right about the potential infrastructure problems. I guess we will have to wait and see how it evolves…
The wifi net in my hometown is private, and you have to pay as a typical internet conection (about 20eur/moth, I guess). Of course, it’ll be interesting to see a total wifi cover everywhere you go. Maybe on next 5 years we will see a wifi boom, similar to the mobile boom we saw last years.
20 ?¢‚Äö¬¨ / month is cheaper than any offer the big Spanish ISPs have, and considering that you don’t need wiring, and you are covered everywhere in town, I think it is a great deal. Novelda - the geek dream town!
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