fontastic.org - FON and free WiFi blog

New La Fonera+ now available July 10, 2007

Last week FON updated the La Fonera to the La Fonera+. It finally adds another LAN port ad thus you can now connect the La Fonera to your router and not loose a port. Here in the US you often get DSL modems with only one port and so far it was impossible to use another cabled device (e.g. a VoIP adapter like my Grandstream 496 box). Now we are waiting for the next update which might feature a USB port.

New Foneras coming out April 11, 2007

During a cab ride in Taipei, Martin Varsavsky delivered a short video message on what's coming up next at Fon:

current Foneros will be updated to have 2 ethernet ports (to improve use with single port routers provided by many ISPs). They will also feature 2 antennas, one for the personal network and one for the Fon net. The updated version is expected to launch in June
Fontennas coming out in May. These will be flat panel antennas to be mounted inside of window frames to boost range to 200 yards
new La Fonera 2.0 will be launched in October. It will feature a USB port to connect a hard drive or memory stick and allow to integrate into Web 2.0 apps via it's own API
for the beginning of next year, Foneras supporting 802.11n standard are planned. These will have a range of up to one kilometer and transmit data at a faster rate (probably around 200 Mbit/s)

That's a lot of news for a short cab ride.

According to Mike Puchol of tech.am, this might be the new FON Liberator. As Martin Varsavsky announced earlier last year, the FON Liberator will feature a USB port to attach harddrives and be able to download files withouth the need of a computer connected and be able to access those files remotely. It appears that the Accton MR3203A does exactly this. It has a build in FTP server and Bit Torrent client (featuring FTP and HTTP downloads). Just like the La Fonera, the router has two SSIDs, one public (FON) and one private. Unlike the La Fonera the new Liberator seems to have a LAN passthrough.

If you are interested in becoming a FON retailer in Europe, you can sign-up for it now. The deal: you pay €20 per piece if you order a minimum of 50 routers (that's €1000, Albert), shipping included (in bulk to one address). With La Foneras retailing for €39.95 (incl. VAT) plus €5 shipping you will make up to 70% margin depending on the country (there are different VAT rates throughout Europe). This program will be in place until March 31st and is only valid within the EU. Retailers will be listed on the FON website ("Where to buy") and some retailers might even mentioned on the FON blog.

The worlds largest business network, Xing/ openBC and FON offer free La Foneras for Xing premium members. Just click on the "Premiumworld" button and you will find the promotion. You need to click the "Details" button in order to retrieve the promotion code. The deal includes a free La Fonera ($29.95 or €29.95 value), VAT (where applicable) and shipping. It seems to be an ongoing campaign so there is no hurry. If you are interested in becoming a premium member, click here.

Starting today, FON launches the "Fonero gets Fonero" program (details here). Every registered Fonero can invite up to 3 friends to become Foneros as well and let them pick up a La Fonera router for free (shipping included). Just log in and send out your invitations. Your friend will find a link to the shop after sign-up where a La Fonero router waits to be checked out for $0 (or €0 in Europe).

Google, one of FONs investors has also invested in Meraki Networks. Their mesh technology is based on a former MIT project (Roofnet project). Meraki offers both a mesh-enabled router (Meraki Mini) at $49.- during the beta program (around $100 thereafter) plus a mesh-network management software (hosted by Meraki) that enables organisations building up and managing WLAN networks easily and quickly. The big plus of a mesh network is that each node (router) can be access point and repeater at the same time and therefore not every access point needs an internet connection. In other words, in a perfect mesh network you could reach thousands of users via hundreds of meshed routers with only one connection to the internet. In reality, you probably end up connecting 10 - 20% of your nodes to the internet.

The Meraki-Mini looks pretty similar to the La Fonero and the single-chip controller is also manufactured by Atheros. Here are some specs (via Meraki Wiki):

180MHz MIPS CPU (Atheros AR2315 SoC)
8MB Flash, 32MB SDRAM
60mW 802.11b/g radio
External RP-SMA antenna connector, internal chip diversity antenna
10/100 Mbit/s auto-crossover Ethernet port
Headers for 3.3v serial port, GPIO pins
5.6-18V DC tolerance, for use in developing countries or with batteries
Power-over-Ethernet support (non-802.3af)
Includes 2dBi antenna and 7.5V DC power supply.

One of the great features is that you can power the Meraki-Mini over Ethernet. As stated earlier, I guess this technology would have been a great basis for FON as well and would help making the FON network more accessable and spread faster (one could apply for a free router in repeater mode if you lived in an appropriate location for example). Well, as Google is on board in both worlds we see what happens.

It's holiday season already for Swedish, Finish and Danish Foneros: FON announced yesterday to waive any fees on orders on La Fonera routers and offer the same promise-based deal as before in Germany and Austria. This is a €29.95 saving and valid until Christmas this year.

Ok, it's not the hottest news anymore as I was traveling with limited internet access but still I guess this is noteworthy. Skype has teamed up with FON to offer a WiFi phone/ La Fonera bundle thru their online shop. The package comprises the SMC WiFi phone (featuring computer-free Skype calls) plus the La Fonera for $159 (€139 or GBP 99). Both the SMC phone and the La Fonera are manufactured by Accton. Skype also throws in 500 minutes and a year of voicemail, at least a $30 value. Anyway you look at it you save big time if you are interested in either of the two products.

This week GigaOM spread the news of FONs purchase of Gspace, a Firefox extension that enables users to use their Gmail account for file storage (incl. a simple media player and photo browser). Om Malik was so kind to help out as Martin Varsavsky expected his fourth child (congrats, Martin!).

FON also announced their new router called Liberator which is basically a router you can connect an external hard drive to. The Liberator can be used to download files from the internet while you are not on your computer and then use those files (or files you uploaded) everywhere in the world. You could stream music and make it available to friends or everyone you are willing to share your login and password with.

Both products are also supposed to tie in with each other. Users can remotely access files from their Gmail accounts and move to a Liberator-connected hard drive or vice versa. There is a video about the Liberator (in Spanish) here. The device will be available in February 2007.

Hurry up, Germany: free routers up until Nov, 8th November 7, 2006

FON has continued their promised-based distribution of La Fonera for another 3 days until tomorrow, Wednesday November 8th. The price is still 0 Euros, shipping included. Also available in Austria.

After having received 6000 orders in Germany and Austria, the free, promised-based distribution of La Fonera routers ends next week Friday at midnight. In all other parts of the world prices will be raised from €5/ $5 to €29/ $29.95 respectively.

According to Martin Varsavsky, FON has reached its goal to get more routers out in Germany than T-Mobil has hotspots (which would be 4500). The first 1000 of these 6000 routers have already been shipped.