Some readers have asked me why FON was selling Foneras at the same price (39.95) in US and Europe, even if the exchange rate between dollar and euro is far from being 1. For a while we kept the same price, since there are costs and barriers in Europe that don’t exist in the US. Today, with the euro at 1.45, we decided to adjust the price of our Fonera according to the real value of the currencies.

Starting today, people in Europe will buy the Fonera for 29.95 euros (VAT included) + shipping costs, those in the US will pay 39.95 dollars + shipping costs.

This week I visited the BT offices in London and loved seeing how the company is making FON part of its own identity. With this great campaign BT is targeting its 90.000 employees, many of whom are now foneros as well!

The City of Geneva and FON have officially announced a joint project to provide WiFi access to the city’s residents and visitors. Starting next week, 500 La Fonera WiFi Routers will be distributed to residents who have a broadband connection.

Residents who want to become Foneros and share some of their broadband with the rest of the FON Community will gain free and unlimited access to more than 250,000 FON Spots around the world. Once the 500 La Foneras have been installed, Geneva’s residents and all of your Foneros visiting the city will enjoy WiFi coverage.

This project is part of FON’s strategy to provide WiFi coverage in major cities worldwide, such as Tokyo, San Francisco and Munich. This initiative together with ChuecaWiFi in Madrid and FON’s partnerships with BT in the UK and Neuf Cegetel in France, give Foneros even more FON Spots around the world to connect to and give non Foneros more reasons to join the FON Community.

And here´s some more news. If you live in Geneva and you face a busy street please send me a picture of your view to martin@fon.es and your address and I will send you a free fonera and fontenna. I have spent a significant amount of time in Geneva and I love the city.

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Gspace is an application that provides FREE Online Storage to access your files everywhere. Gspace turns the 2GB of your Gmail account into free online storage. With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface.

At FON Labs, we have gone one step further by creating FONBackup. FONBackup is a multi-platform application (Windows/Mac/Linux) that allows you to sync one of your computer folders with your Gspace account. The application will download all your Gspace files missing on your computer and upload all your local files missing in your Gspace account, creating an identical copy on your computer and in your Gmail account.

FONBackup is especially useful if you work on various computers or operating systems. You can synchronize your directory with a simple double click and ensure that your important files are always available to you at all times, everywhere.  Of course, you can still use the “I lost the file” excuse, but with FONBackup your important stuff can be safely backed up or portable in your Gmail account.

In this video I summarize the milestones Fon achieved last week, which was one of the best ones of my business life.

You can also watch this video in Youtube

In this video I present BT’s hub now flashed with FON’s functionality.

You can also watch this video in Youtube

 

In this video, Guillaume Valet of FrancoFON, a very well organized community of French foneros, shows me how the software they developed for la Fonera works. Basically, the software allows la Fonera to create a bridge by which it can turn any encrypted WiFi signal into a FON WiFi signal. We will test this software thoroughly and most likely incorporate it in the Fonera firmware. Thank you FrancoFon!!!

You can also watch this video in Youtube

UPDATE : I forgot to mention that the “bridge” functionality i talk about in the video (which enables la fonera to become a WiFi repeater) was actually developed by Antonio Anselmi, of Italy, who worked with FrancoFON to integrate his “ponte” on their firmware. Sorry for that and congrats again to Antonio and FrancoFON for the great job in bringing new features to the FON firmware !

Yes, you read it correctly: BT stands for British Telecom!!!

Ever since we started building FON, the largest WiFi community in the world, I have been explaining how FON is great for telcos and ISPs. BT, one of the world’s leading and most innovative telcos, has partnered with FON because it understands the value that FON gives to its customers.

So I am extremely proud to introduce you to the BT FON Community that BT and FON have built together in the U.K. BT recognized FON’s vision and understood how it would greatly benefit BT customers both at home in the U.K. and when abroad. It was amazing and refreshing to see how agile a telco giant could be in working with an innovative concept like the BT FON Community. Everyone at BT and FON has dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and effort in working closely together to make this new Wi-Fi community a reality.

The result is that now millions of BT broadband subscribers can automatically opt-in to the BT FON Community. That means a revolutionary number of places for you to get WiFi in the U.K. for FREE. We have done this by integrating FON into BT’s broadband platform and allowing BT users to share their Wi-Fi like the rest of us. And yes, of course, all Foneros who share Wi-Fi can now access all BT FON hotspots in the UK for free.

And there’s more great news. I’d like to announce that BT is also shareholder and partner in FON. BT is a fantastic addition to our roster of investors and highlights the on-going success of FON. We are now part of BT’s strategy to provide wireless broadband not just inside the home, but outside as well. Wireless broadband is central to BT’s consumer, business mobility, and convergence strategies, and enables customers to be better connected, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The combination of BT Total Broadband and BT’s other wireless networks, and now with the BT FON Community, customers across the UK will be able to experience the benefits of broadband at home and everywhere else in the UK and across the world.

From the beginning we Foneros have believed in the concept of sharing and in citizens’ ability to participate in building something important that would benefit everyone. BT FON represents a huge leap forward in the Fonero goal of making WiFi available anytime, anywhere!

Thanks to all of you Foneros out there, and welcome to the U.K.!

You can also watch this video in Youtube

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