Google and Skype have both decided to invest in FON, a system that lets people share their WiFi access.
Is this a substitute for fast access via wires?
TheWirelessReport says $21.7 million was raised. Om Malik is skeptical, although FON says it will sell Linux-based routers pre-configured for its service at just $25, against the $75-100 cost of current 802.11g routers. Argentine entrepreneur Martin Varsevsky is the man behind it. He calls those who are using the system "Foneros," and says 3,000 have downloaded the software so far.
Glenn Fleishman writes this:
Fon as a grassroots effort seemed to me to be headed to the same dustbin that
led other companies to abandon trying to get individuals and small businesses to
install hardware that would turn them into hotspots. Let’s face it: most
locations that are good for a hotspot are either already under contract, don’t
want it, or are complicated. Someone’s house in the suburbs or an apartment in
Manhattan are probably bad hotspots for different reasons. But if Fon is going
to use the money and connections it now appears to have to seed its network,
there’s more of a likelihood of it working, especially given what seems to be a
very high commitment to signing up ISPs instead of signing up users and having
them worry about whether their ISP finds Fon appropriate or not. To date, it’s
been quite tricky to set up a hotspot with authentication (user accounts and
billing) without either having enough traffic to warrant a for-fee provider
setting up your service, or, if you don’t want to charge, without either taking
on all the tasks yourself (and not using accounts) or paying a managed provider
$50 per month to be part of their system and have them handle tech support. So
Fon could fill a gap if they put out thousands of hotspots into cities that have
gaps, and work with ISPs as a way to let customers easily build networks. I’m
still pretty dubious about the notion of every home being a hotspot because that
requires incredible luck and coordination to get continuous zones of coverage,
and outdoor coverage really requires antennas — not just an access point in the
window.The idea has started to attract others as well. Wibiki is
another such project . Sharemywifi.com is the latest to enter the space as well
and seems to be a copycat of FON.If you have broadband access and a WiFi
network, you can share it with others, for free or a small fee. List your
network on the site (it’s free). Then when someone comes to the site to search
for broadband access and they find you, they’ll send you an email. You and the
person can work out the details of sharing however you’d like.
More after the break.
Bob Frankston offers these objections:
The
real problem is that we don’t have any compelling mundane applications. There
are a number of reasons:· No users so no apps so no users
so …· The devices are lamed to below
the status of the failed browser machines – you know those unPCs that were
supposed to save us from all the complexity of using a computer. It doesn’t help
that they purposefully crippled by the carriers.· The coverage is low enough so
why even think of using it.· We can’t build infrastructure
devices that use it so everything is still about web browsing and you have to
explicitly go to it.· I actually did navigate
Zaragoza
using the map on my Tablet PC and a
GPS
. It worked but c’mon. Now at
least I can use Co-Pilot on my Samsung though it leave little room for other
stuff.· Form does matter but not that
much. A Blackberry can easily be replaced by a generic computing device – it’s
easy to setup my phone to poll a pop account every few minutes at no incremental
cost. Replacing an iPod is a little more challenge because of style but you can
implement a connected player using an (ugh) Bluetooth headset. No need to limit
yourself to 60GB and you can any radio broadcast available via the Internet –
just small matter of software.· Lacking an application we are
left with saying that Wi-Fi is a bypass for the poor folk. I don’t buy it – they
could reduce the price by sharing an access point. The real problem is a lack of
awareness.The net result (OK, bad
pun) is that there is a major lack of “pull” and caring. If we can reduce the
trouble of getting connectivity that might be less of an issue but we need to
address the larger picture.
I want to add a few observations.
- Interesting that this is an Argentine entrepreneur, thinking faster and doing more than Americans in the wireless Internet space. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
- The sharing of 802.11 links may initially seem more important to Europe than America, with its greater population density. But most Americans live in densely-populated cities, too.
- The idea of shared WiFi is to turn the service from a spot service to a "cloud" with more or less connectivity depending on your location. Good in theory. But when are we going to get enough bandwidth (unlicensed spectrum) for this to make a real difference in people’s lives?
