If you recall, startup
Fon aimed to build a global network of one million wireless hotspots by the end of four years. The idea was to convince users to install Fon firmware on their Linksys residential routers, turning them into a unified community of global hotspots. The network is currently 190,000 hotspots strong.
The Spain-based operation offered three levels of participation:
"Bill" users get a cut of whatever profit is made via their hotspot but cannot use other Fon hotspots for free.
"Linus" users get to use any hotspot, anywhere, for free.
"Aliens" are just customers, and pay to access to the hotspots.
The somewhat original idea (see
Linspot) received a lot of hype from bloggers with financial ties to the project not long ago (see
WSJ, 2/9/06), combined with hefty investment from Google and Skype (to the tune of $21 million). The business model has some holes, namely that free open APs already litter the globe -- and the idea is against most ISPs' TOS.
Fon has hoped to address this by signing deals with ISPs like
Time Warner Cable and this week
British Telecom. Fon boss Martin Varsavsky posts the kind of bubbly generic PR fodder you'd expect after having money thrown at him over at his
blog:
I am extremely proud to introduce you to the BT FON Community that BT and FON have built together in the U.K. BT recognized FON’s vision and understood how it would greatly benefit BT customers both at home in the U.K. and when abroad. It was amazing and refreshing to see how agile a telco giant could be in working with an innovative concept like the BT FON Community.
We know some of you folks signed up early (albeit sometimes just to flash the free router with third party firmware). Can anyone that's still a
"Fonero" give their latest thoughts?
Fon Cuddles Up To British Telecom
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