Google, E-Bay back plan to let hotspot owners charge for Wi-Fi access:
Ok -so the previous post talked about how our internet wings were getting clipped by the telcos'cableco - now a fight back - from the free and open front - we now have an opportunity to share our home based wi fi networks - thanks to FON, the Spanish startup. Fon wants to share your hotspot with Fon registered users - for a fee or free.
FON is a global community of people who share WiFi connections dubbed "Foneros". To become a Fonero, you go to FON, to download software that you install in your router, you place your antenna by a window and you share bandwidth with other Foneros from anywhere in the world.
And Google, Skype and other venture capitalists are tossing $22 mill into Fon's hands to make it happen. Yes, there may bece significant opposition from Internet service providers - who may not want you to share your hot spot but can't do much to block you from doing so.
Here's how FON plans to make money:
At FON we plan to make money with characters we call the Aliens. To us the world is divided into Linus, Bills and Aliens. A Linus shares his/her bandwidth for free with other Foneros, Bills share their bandwidth for a small fee, and Aliens don't share their bandwidth at all.
If you capture FON´s signal and you are not a fonero in 120 days you will have to pay to use the FON signal. Our rates for Aliens will be like those of public transportation, a price of a subway or bus ticket. So FON will provide either free WiFi or very low cost WiFi. Still if you are using FON everyday it´s better that you become Fonero by signing up for broadband with your local ISP cause those low cost rates add up to more than their monthly charges if you log in everyday.
What do we do with the money from Aliens? We share it with the ISPs so they support FON. Also in case you are interested in FON only to make some money and not to get free WiFi roaming we also share it with you. At FON you can choose. If you become a fonero to obtain free WiFi everywhere you are a Linus fonero, if you become a fonero to make money out of your WiFi connection you are a Bill fonero. We at FON think the world is built by Bills and Linuses (Bill comes from Bill Gates and Linus from Linus Torvalds
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Great post Michael!
It's not surprising at all to see Google involved in a 'spread the wifi' movement given their constant push toward targeted advertisements. With free wifi on a handheld Internet device in the not-so-distant future, Google will be able to pinpoint advertisements to our exact location, letting us know that the Starbuck's on the corner serves a great latte and that the shop across the street is having a sale. While I love the free services that Google offers (such as Blogger), there is always a cost, and that cost with Google usually is advertisements.
Again, great post! I just discovered your site through the Edubloggers Frappr map. Drop by a fellow Edmontonian edtech's blog sometime if you like. It's called TILT - Teachers Improving Learning with Technology http://tilttv.blogspot.com
Keep up the insightful writing Michael!
Danny Maas
TILT
Post a Comment