World Premiere of the Fontenna
FON will introduce the Fontennas in early May (we still don’t have the exact date). I have personally tested the Fontennas and my estimate is that they increase the effective range of the La Foneras by a factor of 5 to 10 (think that range in the 3D world of our cities is 3 dimensional). I tested the La Foneras in the Place des Vosges in Paris where we have an apartment. With a La Fonera I could cover 1/8 of the park while with the Fontenna I could 7/8 of it (areas with trees interfered with the signal). In this video I show the Fontennas for the first time. Fontennas will probably sell for 9,95 plus shipping, but we will probably give them away for free or for only the shipping to all of those Foneros who have shown that they keep their La Foneras on over time. We will make these decisions shortly.
Last minute update. A Fon team just came back from testing the Fonera that is in my window and they could get signal from 450m and connect from 370m. Clearly the Fontenna ads a whole new dimension to the Fon Movement.
Posted on FON | 3:22 pm
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Posted by moua - April 18, 2007 3:42 pm - #
For people who don’t know this place, search
place des vosges, paris
in http://maps.fon.com
Posted by Francois - April 18, 2007 5:20 pm - #
great
if you need assistance (to make FONtests or anything) on Paris, do not hesitate to contact me.
Posted by pm2036 - April 18, 2007 5:38 pm - #
Cool! Don’t forget to add an option allowing to regulate the power of emmission of La Fonera in order to respect the French law
Posted by Prolific Programmer - April 18, 2007 7:38 pm - #
La Fonera already has a MUCH better range than my stock WRT54g. Martin, did fon do anything to the hardware or only write custom firmware?
Posted by Martin Varsavsky - April 19, 2007 2:05 pm - #
Prolific Programmer,
The chips in both foneras are different, atheros vs broadcom.
Yes, the fonera is already very good, and with the Fontenna we get 350 meters!
Posted by Martin Varsavsky - April 19, 2007 2:06 pm - #
Well pm,
Everyone is selling antennas in France
http://www4.fnac.com/Shelf/article.aspx?PRID=1815719&OrderInSession=1&Mn=3&Mu=-13&SID=dd32c2da-ed4e-f846-6814-7ac18c2cf8de&TTL=190420072212&Origin=FnacAff&Ra=-50&To=0&Nu=2&UID=0c0df640a-01af-d9e1-c83d-3e754b3fb8dd&Fr=0
Posted by PanMan - April 19, 2007 2:56 pm - #
Aren’t you afraid that in the end, this will lead to less Wifi reception, because of the bigger interference? If everybody starts broadcasting louder, in the end nobody can be haired….
Posted by dema - April 19, 2007 4:46 pm - #
Hi Martin , I will like to test the fontenna and maybe post a review to dema fon blog.
Bye
Anton
Posted by pm2036 - April 20, 2007 8:07 am - #
Hi Martin,
thanks for your answer.
yes i know but it’s only tolerate because nobody control and check the emission power of all wifi routers but officially it’s not allowed to have more 100mW of power emission.
I talk yesterday with the Fon France staff (that you know well^^) at their office and i have got my answer
Thanks to take our time to respond me
Posted by kenny hickerson - June 12, 2007 11:02 am - #
How can a person get a free antenna ? I am disabled and on a very tight budget (Can not thank you enough for the free fonera)
Thanks
Kenny
Posted by Martin Varsavsky - June 12, 2007 2:52 pm - #
I will send you one Kenny.