FON calls with Skype and Google
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Spain is the place to be if you are a VoWLAN go-goer. Buzz on wireless access point and free hotspot are gaining momentum. Since the Davos 2006 summit, Martin Varsavsky ― Argentine entrepreneur, as his name doesn’t show ― and his new wireless service company FON received many enthusiastic support to build a free-for-(almost)-all WiFi roaming environment.Now “FON can now count Google, Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers,” as written on their weblog. So far, 3,000 ‘FONeros’ have already registered within 90 days. The objective is to provide a 1 million hotspots by 2010. Possible if their network inflates as fast as “5% of a big hotspot network“, as noticed Guru Glenn of WiFiNetworkingNews.
Grass-root network
The entrepreneurial idea bases its eventual success on ordinary people. After downloading the FON open source software, everyone could share a portion of his or her bandwidth to neighbors. Thousands of nodes could then be set at an inexpensive installation cost for the company. Such a structure of the wireless network could be compared to a mesh network. FON currently yields its roots on Old Europe but North America could soon be part of the process. The FON blog acknowledge that Speakeasy and ETel is willing to implement some FON hotspot in America. Of course, it’s not possible right now. But think about interoperability between Google WiFi and others networks. People from North America and Europe would almost pay their phone calls no more.Monetized kindness
The people’s kindness is even rewarded. Mr. Varsavsky’s business model involved three levels of users: free operators (the wireless angles or Linuses as FON calls them), the for-fee operators or Bills, and non-operators or casual users or Aliens if you speak FON’s tongue.It still is buzz…
FON network could even be expanded a higher pace. But their software stubbles on quite numerous technical problems. A major one is the European WiFi authorities who won’t allow FON users to share WiFi signals so easily. Besides this, the different Telcos and Comcos which are making big bucks with VoIP services included in their triple-play services (high-speed Internet connexion/television/VoIP phone calls). Wireless security is the second problem. The FON network comes without encryption ― It’s free, so why encrypt it? But if anyone could access the network, would it be still secured? And third problem: Except the Linksys models, most of currently available wireless routers show close source administration applications. Which means: Whether you are willing to give your sweat building a nice application for them, whether you need to wait… Not the worst idea actually.Feb 6, 2006 | By Nuno
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