fontastic.org - FON and free WiFi blog » 2006

FONtastic.org and FON in the NY Times September 27, 2006

Today (9/27), the NY Times has published an article on FON and I am honored to be part of the story. Tim Gnatek had interviewed me a couple of weeks ago and Michael, a photographer for the NY Times came to my office and took this nice photo. You can find the article here (3rd down) or here but only if you sign-up for the 14 days trial membership (no obligation). Here is an excerpt covering my involvement and fontastic.org:

"ALTHOUGH he runs his own business, Olaf Kreitz is a socialist when it comes to Internet connections. In the window of Braintransfer, his Internet consulting company in Manhattan, Mr. Kreitz has mounted a special wireless router from Fon, a start-up company based in Spain that is trying to build a hot-spot network around the world. He hopes passers-by will make free use of his extra bandwidth.

Mr. Kreitz gets something in return for his largess: as part of a Wi-Fi sharing community being developed by Fon, he can log on free to other members’ wireless broadband connections in a growing network of citizen-powered hot spots.

“I love the idea, sharing your Wi-Fi and being able to surf the Internet wherever you find a hot spot,” he said.

Six months after he joined the Fon community, Mr. Kreitz remains optimistic, despite having had some difficulties logging on to nearby Fon access points, and the fact that his own location had been mismarked on Fon’s hot spot location map (recently updated to show active hot spots and to help users correct errors). He said he thought the company would struggle for some time to solve such network troubles.

“It’s going to be difficult,” said Mr. Kreitz, who writes a personal Web log, www.fontastic.org, that tracks matters related to Fon and its members, called Foneros.(…)"

Thanks to Gerhard over at fonblog.de we found one of the widely announced WiFi phones is now finally available (we reported earlier). Before we digg deeper into it, though, we must warn you: it is not yet available in the USA or Canada. However, as it has some US specific agency approval it is most likely to be launched here shortly. Maybe some other vendor has exclusivity for a period of time?

SMC is launching the WSKP100 in many markets in Europe, Africa and some western Asian countries. I have checked some German online stores listed on the Where to Buy section and they seem to be available within 24 hrs at €189.- (currently $240).

The features have been widely discussed before but here are some actual facts now, taken from their website. First and foremost the phone operates without a connection to a computer. It has 802.11b/g wireless connectivity and Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure stable quality. It connects to your computer via USB 1.1 to charge and update the firmware. Security-wise it supports both WPA and WPA2 (with pe-shared keys). You can even start using it without a Skype account and use the phone to sign-up.

Here are some more features:

Display

1.8" CSTN LCD
65K color
Resolution 128 x 160

Network Features

DHCP
Static IP

Wireless Features

IEEE802.11b/g
Site survey
WMM (IEEE802.11e)
WEP 64-/128-bit
WPA/PSK
WPA2/PSK

Call Features

Skype to Skype Calls
SkypeIn/Out calls
Skype Voicemail
Call waiting
Conference Call (Guest only)
Call History

Power Supply

1200 mAh Li-on Battery
Talk Time: 3 hours
Standby Time: 30 hrs

Still need more info? Here is the complete list.

Update: $5 La Fonero also for registered Foneros September 23, 2006

Thanks to comments on my last post I checked the FON online store again and it's true: you can order a $5 La Fonera even though you are already a registered Fonero (I had purchased the Linksys before). Including shipping and tax total costs are $14.10. They expect to deliver within 3 weeks. I have ordered mine last night and keep you posted as soon as it arrives.

A couple of days ago I received an email from FON promising us Foneros a "La Fonera in a very special promotion (including a surprise)". This said, I am going to hang on in until then as I may save a couple of bucks and I am also really curious what the surprise will be like. Sure, I will keep you guys posted.

The new router "La Fonera" is now available through the FON's online shop. La Fonera features two SSIDs, one for Foneros and one encrypted signal for your personal use (e.g. to share WiFi with family and friends). You will also be able to personalize the log-on page and set the bandwidth you want to share with others. It is priced at $5 for first time subscribers. If you are already a Fonero you need to pay $50, though (I have logged in with my Fonero credentials and that's the price showing).

Microsoft just launched their iPod killer, the Zune. While it doesn't have the looks and accessories collection (yet) it features WiFi and a very cool social feature: you can share songs with fellow Zuners and they can listen to it 3 times or 3 days and flag it to buy it via the Zune online shop. You can also share "homemade" music productions and images. Other than that the standard features are rather straight forward (30 GB harddrive, 3 inch QVGA display, FM radio).

New FON shop online September 14, 2006

FON just launched a new online shop. There are only a few products available (here in the US only the Linksys router) but it is a sign that something is going on. Will we see the new "La Fonera" soon? Or even a nice little Skype phone?

The shop is available in four languages (English, French, Spanish and German) and 27 markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

We are waiting for 3 WiFi Skype phones to arrive shortly and a close look unveils why they are not available yet although 2 of them should already. The Belkin phone ($189) was announced to be available August 31st (and is still on pre-order) and the Netgear ($249) is now scheduled for October 15th (also delayed). FONs Skype phone ($150) will be bundled with a router (which doubles as charger) and is scheduled for November. We have photoshopped the images and it looks like all three are based on the same OEM model. Would be nice to find out the original manufacturer. Any ideas?

Recently, you could read a lot about FON if you speak German. There was an article in Germans newspaper Die Zeit and an interesting interview with Martin Varsavsky in Der Spiegel. The Zeit article was basically an overall overview over the FON movement and company. In Der Spiegel Martin was asked about FONs return on investment as Google and Skype just invested $12 mill in February this year. He said right now FON is burning $500k above revenues per month with around 5000 paying members (Aliens). Martin estimates it requires around half a million hotspots to break even (operationally). He also announced the Skype phone router combination which will be launched around November for about $150 and the FON-Liberator, a de-luxe router if you will, featuring USB connectivity for use with external harddrives and MP3 player which will operate without the computer to be turned on (available later this year).

The European FON blogs have announced the arrival of the FON router "La Fonera" (see photo), hotspots in Madagascar, news on the upcoming portal software (we reported earlier) and 1000 day passes been sold.