Just sat through a short presentation from FON. FON has developed a downloadable ROM upgrade for WiFi routers that allows you to share your WiFi hotspot securely. It’s a pretty interesting push. What they’ve done is built a business model which allows you, if you wish, to charge for access to your router. Or, if you wish to provide it for free, to be able to authenticate and use for free and FON hotspot.
I’ve been thinking about doing this at my house for some time. Perhaps the time has now come.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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My concern though is that most small Internet customers have terms of service with their provider that prohibit resale of the Internect connectivity or the provision of access to third parties. FON itself probably doesn’t have much to lose if this should happen so its a good business model from their perspective. But not necessarily for their customers. Perhaps the contract terms are different in Spain or Europe where FON originated.
Alan, I think the FON model might be tough for those who want to charge for access, for exactly the reasons you describe. My plan, personally, is to provision a FON hotspot for the use of my friends and neighbours when they’re at my place. I keep my wireless network secured tightly. FON says their software can separate my secure network from unsecured WiFi bandwidth. That will solve te problem.
I’m not sure if that violates the TOS I have with my provider, nor do I particularly care. I don’t see them coming after me over casual use.
I misunderstood. Sounds like it would be a good solution for what you want to do.
http://del.icio.us/foneros
there you may find a lot of links. concering the project.
greetings from europe
g.
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