FON & HubHop
Yesterday I received a Fon router. In case you don’t know; Fon is a company that gives away free Wi-Fi wireless networking routers to anyone who wants to install one and make it accessible to other Fon users. FON received $21.7 million (in 2006) from Google, Skype, and Sequoia Capital to build a free network of Wi-Fi hotspots all over the world. The idea is that you set-up the Fon Access Point in your window and allow other users to access your Hotspot. If they also make their hotspot available to other ‘Foneros’ they can access your Hotspot for free. Other users will pay Fon and you will receive a kick-back.
I’m very interested in this company partly because I set up a similar service in 2003 called HubHop (later re-branded to MiWIFI.nl) which tried to do a similar thing in the Netherlands. HubHop ended up with more than 1000 publicly accessible HotSpots within a year. We had a website that listed every hotspot, a software application to look for Hotspots near you and a lot of attention in the press.
We ended up selling HubHop as a commercial Hotspot operator to KPN which killed the MiWiFI community and rebranded HubHop to KPN Hotspots in 2003.
Based on my experience I am not too optimistic about the future of Fon. I have been reluctant to voice my opinion earlier because my experience gives me insight but might also cloud my judgement. Maybe things have changed or Martin Varsavsky is a better entrepreneur than I am and will succeed where I failed.
Having said that here is my opinion on Fon and the problems, I think, it faces;
1: It is illegal
Although Fon aims to make deals with ISPs to allow Fon on their networks right now Fon is illegal on most networks. My ISP clearly states that it isn’t allowed to share my network with other people than those that live in my house. If I open up my network to the world I’m violating the contract I have with my ISP. Wether the ISP would actually sue me is a different matter as long as Fon isn’t really successful. But you can image the ISPs opinion of Fon will drastically change if people start canceling their DSL lines because they all share one Fon router. And I’m not even talking about reselling your DSL line to other people through Fon.
2: It is dangerous
Wether or not you are allowed to share your DSL line or not either way YOU are responsible for all data that is transmitted over your connection. If your neighbor uses your DSL line to upload kiddie porn you will be held responsible. As far as the ISP is concerned YOU are uploading illegal stuff. Opening up your DSL to the world is like playing russian roulette.
3: It doesn’t work
Wi-Fi in theory is great. You switch on your Wi-Fi router and within 100 meters (according to the specifications on the box) you will be surfing the web with a 11 mb connection. In reality Wi-Fi sucks. Every electrical device in your house limits the signal of your Wi-Fi adapter. Every other Wi-Fi adapter tries to get in the same spectrum as your router and every wall limits your reach considerably. Getting your house covered is NOT easy and requires constant attention. My house in only 22 meters long but I would need 3 access points to get it covered because of all the interference from other sources. Even if every house in the world would have a Fon router installed there still wouldn’t be Wi-Fi access everywhere.
4: You won’t find it
The general idea is that you want to check your mail, open your laptop and (surprise!) there is a Fon router there. In reality 99.9% of people don’t live next to a bar, hotel lobby or restaurant or other potential place where you would open your laptop. With HubHop we went looking for individuals who lived near big squares in the larger cities. But even IF we could find someone willing to help us we often found out that they were just slightly to high in a building or far away from the square to be of any use. I think I am a prototype Fon user; always on the road and opening my laptop all the time in different places all over the world. But so far I have never accidently stumbled upon a Fon access point. My guess is I never will unless I look up an address at Fon and go search for it in some residential area.
In 2006 I met Martin Varsavsky in Paris during Les Blogs and got a change to tell him about my reservations. Although he didn’t offer any solutions he did say that he was confident he would overcome all the issues I came up with.
So why did I order my Fon router? Well, I just can’t resist free hardware and I want to see how the future works out for Fon. I actually hope they prove me wrong and will offer all of us free global wireless broadband access one day.
I just wouldn’t bet my money on it…
UPDATE: Fon just did a deal with BT to give BT users access to FON hotspots around the world. This is good news but doesn’t solve FONs problems. There still isn’t much coverage and access is still illegal on most providers.
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Patrick said,
September 30, 2007 @ 3:05 pm (15:05)
I totally agree with you Boris. They will have a hard time turning this into a worldwide network. When we were in San Francisco at Yahoo Brickhouse, Salim Ishmael told us about a network ‘fon’ like that is getting big in Africa, but also is getting traction in the US. I forgot the name, but I remember that the pitch sounded more hopeful than what FON is doing. Do you remember that company?
I actually did use FON during a conference. I must say, that was value for money. a whole day for 3 euro.
One other thing… They raised a series B from Index and some others. Another 13 million dollars. They can send a lot of routers around the world from that money :)
David Petherick said,
October 4, 2007 @ 2:33 pm (14:33)
Well, they seem to have convinced BT plc - I blogged this today for my customer Thomas Power, “BT & FON offer free wi-fi access across UK in world’s largest wi-fi network” at http://www.ecademy.com/node.ph.....ref=101560
And this is what’s at Dow Jones Newswires: “BT Plans To Build World’s Largest WiFi Network Via FON Deal” - http://tinyurl.com/35dhrx
So now, they are legal with one of the biggest carriers in the UK. Smart move. Thay also have a signal booster available which will extend your router’s coverage. It’s a tipping point for FON, as BT are a huge player.
- David
pixites said,
October 4, 2007 @ 3:36 pm (15:36)
deze sluit hier ook weer bij aan;
http://uk.blognation.com/2007/.....phone-fon/
October 4, 2007 @ 3:41 pm (15:41)
Regarding #2 above (it’s dangerous): that’s exactly what I thought when I first heard about FON. Then I looked into their hardware options and found out that they actually have patched the router’s firmware quite heavily.
What I suspect (but don’t know for sure) is that they encrypt and tunnel all FON traffic in a kind of virtual private network like situation. They need some solution like that for billed access as well. And for privacy from the guest access point - which might routinely run a sniffer on all FON traffic.
So, if done the right way, a person doing illegal things may leave an IP address which eventually can be traced back to some central FON server (and related logfiles).
Still, this may not be how it works. And I have to trust FON that they will protect me in case someone come complaining about a FON user, who connected through my accesspoint.
pixites said,
October 4, 2007 @ 4:27 pm (16:27)
deze ga jij leuk vinden, boris! jij staat toch op #1 ?!
http://www.liewcf.com/blog/arc.....ness-card/
October 4, 2007 @ 4:44 pm (16:44)
@pixites: very nice!
If you search for ‘Boris’ I’m number 8 actually and sometimes 6 of 10 and lastw eek I was 12 for a few days…
FONfanatic said,
January 2, 2008 @ 1:02 am (1:02)
That African Wi-Fi network should be Meraki which offers solar power energy systems to provide electrical power to their hotspots.
FON is an illegal matter? I doubt it … In various countries around the world FON has alliances to ISPs: in France there’s Neuf Cégétel, in Belgium Scarlet, in the USA Time Warner Cable. The Netherlands stay behind in that respect: no ISP co-operates with FON although Surfnet says it’s willing to join hands in this.
In the Netherlands the ISPs are making people dependable on UMTS with regard to have wireless internet connections. Waiting for the auctioning of WiMAX licenses ISPs don’t want people to leave the telecom-providing partners which most ISPs have close relations with.
Another question raised to be answered is whether it is more illegal to make people dependable on these cartels of ISPs and telecom-providers than it is to share a little bandwidth around the tiny FON Hotspots.
Perhaps the big mistake Boris made is to put too much confidence in a healthy competition on Dutch ICT-markets while it was clear to everyone that KPN wanted to restore its monopoly position on the telecom-market while it was also clear to anyone that cable providers were setting up telecom-services and cable internet services. KPN formed a cartel with ADSL-providers, sharing its telephone cable network with them. The next step should be to outmarket independent WiFi-providers, WiFi being an ICT-service which cable companies couldn’t provide on a large scale because cable networks aren’t that widespread as the old telephone network is. Nowadays every KPN phone-box is a WiFi Hotspot and public places are offered money to provide WiFi Hotspots. Free WiFi Hotspots companies offer free hotspot materials if enough turnover can be expected.
And there is FON. FON is duty free. FON-routers are reliable.
It remains an open question what how ISPs will react to FON’s fast spreading success. 2008 looks like a breakthrough year for FON. Alas NMA has decided to give less priority to prosecute ICT-cartels. Otherwise people may wake up and see how they collectively pay too much for their internet connection.