All I can say is wow! I liked the N770. When the N800 came out I thought it was great but needed a full qwerty keyboard. Today Nokia surprised us with N810! Of course it has wifi and lots of other goodies including GPS, Bluetooth, VGA Camera, Skype and a full slide out qwerty keyboard! I want one! Now to convince the wife we need one! Let me know if you have actually put your hands on one!
Hello Foneros, I thought it would fun to bring you some details on the people who make FON run. I'll chase down more of my co-workers in the coming weeks to bring you some insight into what makes FON tick. This week I'm sitting down with Iurgi Arginzoniz, our Firmware Manager.Q: When did you join FON?A: Before it even began. I was working on a project by the Swiss market incumbent, Swisscom. It was called air bites and we did something similar to what fon is. But much more rudimentary. FON and Swisscom were about to go for a joint venture and we had already been working on it for 3 months, when everything went wrong and the deal was turned down. I left my company and joined the unborn FON at the request of Martin Varsavsky. This was November 7, 2005!Q: What is your greatist accomplishment at FON?A: Hard to tell. Probably the launch of La Fonera was the biggest thing till now. I went to Taipei, Taiwan, and worked day and night with Felix (from OpenWrt.org) and Jordi (our hardware expert) for 17days in a row. It was insane. When we came back, La Fonera was ready to be born. Of course, we improved lots of stuff afterwards.Q: What lessons have you learned?A: Well, probably, the most important one is that a good job is almost always rewarded. I worked hard and I'm very well respected at FON. FON is working hard and we're getting our results and keep growing atunbelievable speed.Q:. What are you working on now?A: Part of my work cannot be disclosed, but we have 4 different projects in the hands of my department. They're all so exciting and I hope we can finish them on schedule. I think many people will be happy when we show the results.Q: What would you like to see in the future?A: Even if it sounds like an obvious reply: a free WiFi network that will permit us to be connected anywhere in metropolitan areas. I hope it's FON doing that, but the real wish is that it happens, whoever is behindit. Internet is the cheapest luxury nowadays and WiFi can make it available for even more people.
FON and BT have partnered to create the BT FON Community to cover the entire U.K. with hundreds of thousands of BT FON hotspots.You already know who we are, the world’s largest Wi-Fi Community, and BT is one of the leading broadband providers in the world, and the birth of our BT FON Community means something uniquely special for broadband users in the U.K. and all over the world. We have integrated FON in BT and now more than more than 3 million Total Broadband customers are invited to join the enormous global community of people sharing their WiFi. The fact that a market leader like BT supports FON’s revolutionary model for a massive Wi-Fi community built for and by the people marks a bold step in the communications industry. Every person in the UK who agrees to share a small portion of their home broadband connection will be able to share the connection of any other member. Anyone joining in will be able to use those FON hotspots across the world and all the new BT FON hotspots free of charge.From the very beginning, all of you, Foneros, believed in the concept of sharing and in people’s ability to build something important that would benefit everyone. BT is one of the most important telcos and ISPs in the world, so with BT FON those beliefs have proved to be well-founded!And of course, the best news for all your Foneros around the world is that you can connect to the new BT FON Community Wi-Fi hotspots for FREE!Thanks to all of you, and welcome to the U.K.!
FON was just featured in the CNBC European Edition with this photo on the cover! It took a split second for me to realize the photo was our very own Martin Varsavsky. I couldn't help but chuckle as I read the article. There were some great points but the paragraph I liked the best was; "With the latest laptops and top-end mobile phones coming Wi-Fi-enabled, FON appears to be in a strong position to beat anything the mobile operators can come up with. Moreover, established hotspot providers cannot hope to compete on price. Emerging high-speed technologies like WiMAX will require huge investment, and the costs will inevitably be passed on to the consumer. FON’s future appears to be as bright as Alcobendas’ sun-dazzled streets."It didn't end there though!"Established hotspot providers like T-Mobile and Swisscom, operating at hotels and cafés, have enjoyed a virtual monopoly, splitting their income with the venue. FON is to them what Linux is to Microsoft."Just when I thought it couldn't get any better I thought back to the headline. In case you missed it the title of the article was Wi-Fi hotshot! Go FON!
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has just announced the Give 1 Get 1 promotion. Beginning November 12th you can purchase the XO Laptop! Actually, you're purchasing two, one for yourself and one for a child in a developing nation! The promotion will only run for a limited time and your $399.00 will insure you and a needy child will get one. Yes, the XO Laptop has wifi!
We have launched wouldtheyshare.com, a website about whether Britain is a sharing nation. We want to spread the word about FON in the UK, and for that reason we created wouldtheyshare.com. Our site reveals the Brits' attitudes towards sharing, and we are giving away 100 La Fonera+ among people who answer our daily sharing question and register at fon.com. And there is more! Amongst this month's voters, we are giving away a trip to Madrid (flight + hotel) for two people. Check the details here: http://www.wouldtheyshare.com/win.php
You may have noticed a recent firmware update. One of the most significant changes was allowing the Fonera to utilize your ISP's DNS Server. Full details can be found here.
FON founder Martin Varsavsky is featured in Forbes.com (sign up for a free subscription). During the interview he discusses how FON came to be; "Innovation usually comes from frustration, something I think is stupid or unreasonable," he says. "The telcos promised a fast, wireless Internet, but they mostly delivered a slow, walled garden. Fon is a movement. It is a telco built by the people." The article also features Peter Stern, an executive vice president at Time Warner discussing the benefits of FON. It's great tosee our movement getting attention from the mainstream media!
We've implemented a new feature for owners of multiple Fonera's called "Router Status". You can access this through the User Zone in the Configure Your FON Router section. This new feature shows the status of all your Foneras. Our intent is to help improve uptime since some routers may become accidentally disconnected. You can now log in and confirm that we show your routers as online. This is quicker then checking the maps or driving around town! Currently this is only available to owners of multiple routers but we're going to expand it to everyone soon!UPDATE - Now owners of a single La Fonera will receive a large bold message int the Configure Your Router section if there router is offline!
More good news! We've partnered with Neuf Cegetel. The official press release is below. FON and NEUF CEGETEL begin rollout of new joint serviceThe WiFi Community and the French ISP get ready to launch the new Neuf WiFi FON serviceParis, France/Madrid, Spain – July 19, 2007 – FON, the world’s largest WiFi community, and NeufCegetel, France’s leading alternative operator, have entered the final technical phase before the launch of the new Neuf WiFi FON service. Starting on July 19th and throughout the summer, Neuf Cegetel will be integrating FON’s software into all of its Neuf Boxes and officially launch the service at the beginning of September. This free service will enable all Neuf subscribers who own a WiFi Neuf Box to join the FON Community and start sharing some of their Internet connection with the WiFi Community. These users will be able to enjoy free and secure access to every FON WiFi access point (called “FON Spots”) in France and around the world.Founded in Madrid in 2006, FON aims to stimulate the growth of WiFi access around the world, thanks to its members, also known as “Foneros”. Foneros share some of their broadband Internet connection with other Foneros and in return, can surf the Internet for free on more than 150,000 FON Spots worldwide.To join the FON Community, Neuf Cegetel subscribers will need to activate the service using the free activation wizard available for download on the Neuf and FON websites. More experienced users will be able to activate the Neuf WiFi FON service directly from the management console of their Neuf Box. Once the service has been activated, the Neuf Box will begin emitting a WiFi signal called “Neuf WiFi FON”.WiFi aficionados who are not Neuf Cegetel subscribers can join the FON Community by purchasing the “La Fonera”, FON’s own WiFi Router. With the “La Fonera”, a user will be able to enjoy free and unlimited WiFi access on any FON-enabled Neuf Box and any FON Spot in France and all over the world.This partnership with Neuf Cegetel reinforces FON's closeties with other major ISPs, such as Time Warner Cable, and is the first one to fully integrate an ISP's WiFi capabilities with those of FON.About FONViva Free WiFi - FON is the world’s largest WiFi community. FON’s mission is to stimulate the growth of WiFi around the world by creating a global community of “Foneros”. FON’s La Fonera routers have been designed to enable Foneros to share their home Internet access in a completely secure manner. Founded in February 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
Due to the excellent reception of the beta testing program, we are glad to inform you that we are extending the registration date until the end of July (July 31st 2007). Hundreds of users have already been chosen to participate actively with FON.If you are interested in being part of this FON Beta Test team, just send an e-mail to:beta@fon.comIn order to do so you must comply with the following requirements:- Be over 18 years old.- Be an English speaker, as all communications related to this program will be sent to you in this language.- Have a registered FON user name that has been active for over 6 months.- Have a La Fonera installed and registered for over 4 months.- Live in one of the following countries in which we are currently selling our products:Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, U.S.A., Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, JapanIf you are chosen, as a member of our Beta Tester´s Team, you will have access to our new products and you will be able to test them before anybody else. This will help us improve them with your ideas and feedback. We hope you are one of the lucky Foneros selected. Keep enjoying our products as much as we enjoy developing them!
La Fonera+ is the latest edition of the router developed by FON and designed especially for Foneros. Now with two ports it is much easier to install and gives you the chance to connect wired devices to it. Maintaining the original design of La Fonera, this time it comes with an even easier configuration totally intuitive, which will make your Fonero experience as fun and easy as possible.After the success of La Fonera, we have reloaded our device with a new port. Now you can keep doing all the amazing things that La Fonera allowed you plus connecting a wired device to keep your network exactly as it was. FON’s new Social Router will let you connect all your WiFi-ready devices (desktop and laptop computers, PDAs, etc.) to yourbroadband connection. Use La Fonera+ to allow other Foneros to connect to your signal. If you place it strategically (for example, next to a window), you could catch a great number of Aliens and make your Piggy Bank grow. You can also buy a Fontenna to have an even wider coverage.La Fonera+ hides inside a powerful router that is run by a brand new firmware developed keeping in mind the suggestions made by all Foneros. It provides two wireless networks you can connect to (one public, one private) while maintaining a high level of security to keep your connection protected at all times.
