fontastic.org - FON and free WiFi blog

Free FON router for Starbucks neighbors February 21, 2007

You live near a Starbucks? Or any other coffee shop? As long as you are not affiliated with T-Mobile you may want to help FON and your piggy bank by offering free (or cheap) FON WiFi. Thanks to a free La Fonera that neighbors are now eligible to obtain they can become FON WiFi providers and compete against Starbucks/ T-Mobile. In fact, FON encourages you to become a Bill and earn a buck for every $2 spend by paying WiFi users. That is what FON Aliens pay for 24 hrs of access, one fifth of the $10 that Starbucks and T-Mobile set you back. Could be worth becoming an Alien.

The next version of firmware for the social FON router will introduce a couple of nice features that let you personalize your access point. Foneros who are in reach of your FON router are currently shown a portal webpage enabling you to welcome your visitors with a personal message and add a link to your (or any other website) which can be accessed free of charge (or without logging in). New features comprise a link to YouTube or Google Video, an area for Google Maps (e.g. show a map of your neigborhood) and Flickr photos.

FON WiFi prices update May 28, 2006

Martin Varsavsky posted an update on his personal blog and it appears the couple of hours the Alien pricing page was online earlier this month was just a faux pas, fortunately. Anyways, here are the preliminary *official* prices:

3 EUR/ USD per 24 hrs for any single day purchase
2 EUR/ USD per 24 hrs with a purchase of 5 days minimum (valid one year)

This is truely revolutionary and will most likely initiate a huge price drop throughout the WiFi market.

New FON router firmware features May 9, 2006

Just checked the French FON blog and there are some great news of upcoming features to be included in the next FON router firmware updates:

personalize your AP (access point): SSID, geo-location, local users (some of the features already implemented in FONadvanced firmware)
NEW: user statistics allows you to view who was online and when, plus check the bandwidth used per guest (probably Bill integration here when available)
NEW: you can personalize the homepage/ default login page (your own welcome message/ photos) and allow guests to access 2 websites free of charge

That's really great news. Hope this will all be integrated in both versions of the software. Our FONtastic router runs on FONadvanced, of course, and we would love to customize our AP homepage. We have another idea: why not provide a couple of FON related links to sites/ features that foneros can show on their homepage. We would throw in free blogs for everyone, just a reminder

Cost of Connection: Internet cafés worldwide vs. FON May 5, 2006

In it's recent issue, Wired magazine presents an interesting comparison of internet café prices worldwide. It's broken down by hourly prices and in % of GDP per capita per day. Now, FON will shortly offer 24h access for just $2 which is only 8.3 c per hour. This means, in New York City you could stay connected for one fourth of the average cost of an internet café in Lima. Here is a short overview:

High: New York City ($12.80/ 11.2%)
Low: Lima, La Paz ($0.38/ 2.3% - 5.1%)
European Cities: Paris ($4.86), London ($1.78), Prague ($3.31)
East Asia: Shanghai ($0.62), Tokyo ($3.41)
Highest GDP: Kinshasa, D.R. of the Congo ($1.59/ 68.4%)
Lowest GDP: Bangkok ($0.39/ 1.7%)
FON (worldwide): ($0.08)