Because when I walk my neighborhood, the number of open, free access points dwarfs the number of FON nodes I see (exactly 0). FON nodes are identical to these open access points, except that I have to log in to the network to use them, and I end up paying money to use them!

The free wi-fi which is the default for most people is your actual competitor, not Google, or Boingo, or T-mobile, or anyone else for that matter.

Atherton is oficially a town, Mountain View is oficially a city. Why would a resident of Mountain View be ashamed of that? You may be trying to make a point about size, but regardless, your “shame” comment is somewhat out of line, Martin, because towns eventually may get promoted to city status for a number of reasons and becoming a “city” means a lot more than “we’re bigger than before” and I can see why a resident of a town newly promoted to city is something to be proud of.

I’m sorry to say that this wasn’t the kind of answer I would expect from you, honestly.

Can google get Gods mind?

This was one argument in 2004.I want to validate this argument with diverse opionions by comparing the current trends of google like the one which is described in the post above

http://ragusivanmalai.blogspot.com/2006/10/can-google-get-gods-mind.html

Come on Google users

If Fon is a joke calling Mountain View a city with all respect to the people who live there is a joke. Indeed having been there I am sure that even the people who live in Mountain View would be ashamed of calling Mountain View a city. Madrid is a city, Paris is a city, Seoul is a city, Berlin is a city, New York is a City, Mountain View mi querido Wifi Fan, is a pueblito. Fon got orders for over 5000 foneras last week alone around the world. We will deploy 100K access points around the world in the next 120 days. In any case if you give me your real name I will be happy to bet you $100 that Fon will beat Google WiFi or any other WiFi effort in the world in the next 120 days as measured by globally installed access points.

I agree its a good strategy to have two businesses in the market. We have seen them for many years in other industries.

Surfing the net and my rss reader (Thanks Martin, I been using it a lot more since your comment in class) I came up with this article (Will the “Long Tail” Work for Hollywood?), which you may find interesting. I think its what you tube business model is all about.

The address for the article is: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5520.html

While you claim to be selling access points, they are not creating clouds of access at all and please don’t try to claim that anyone is making any money by sharing their connection.

FON is a joke. You would be better off taking all that money you raised and giving it to CUWin or Roofnet or some other group that actually understands the space.