2010 4
Fon reached 2.5 million hotspots around the world
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Is that a lot? Well huge companies like T Mobile have say, 70,000, France Telecom, Telefonica, ATT, Verizon, less than T Mobile. But we grow over a T Mobile every month. And we are happy because between you and I, 2 years ago, things looked awful at Fon. Laptops were not able to generate enough interest in WiFi roaming. But then the iPhone came along. The iPhone, that beautiful bandwidth hog. We were also helped by netbooks, Androids, iPods, iPads, tablets, game consoles and all kinds of smartphones. WiFi gadgets are everywhere. Demand for WiFi exceeds supply. And at Fon, together with our telco partners such as BT, SFR, Zon, and others we are working hard so there is WiFi everywhere as an accessible signal. As we like to say, with Fon you share a little WiFi at home and roam the world for free.
Are we happy? Contentos si, but not content. We want more WiFi. We are going for 10 million fonspots!!
Here are some pictures of Fon managers in Madrid I took this afternoon at our “cuartel general”. We need to add those of our managers around the world. Our Foneros. Viva Free WiFi.
2010 4
Fon Has Already Reached 20,000 Hotspots in Moscow
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
It is no secret to anyone that the Russian market has enormous potential. Hundreds of thousands of companies are trying to develop projects there, counting on many millions in return on their investments. At Fon, we’ve established a joint project with JSFC Sistema (MTS-Comstar). MTS-Comstar has around 100 million subscribers, making it one of the most important mobile operators in the region. Eugin Koryagin, who worked with Comstar, is now the head of Fon Russia and leads the joint initiative.
The aim of the project, which began in 2008, was to create a major WiFi network in Moscow. Today, I can say with confidence that we have achieved that objective. As of the 30th of September, Comstar–Fon has 20,000 hotspots, making it largest WiFi network in Moscow. That’s double the number of hotspots in just two months and quadruple the number we had at the beginning of 2010.
By the end of 2010, we plan on reaching 50,000 active hotspots in Moscow. We also plan to maintain presence in all the MTS Group of Companies converging products, and to start commercial operation of the Fon network in Moscow and all over Russia. All this will allow Foneros and non-Foneros worldwide to add Russia to the list of countries where they have seamless access to the internet!
The BT FON WiFi network has grown to 1.6 million hotspots in the UK alone. That is a incredible amount of WiFi in one place compared to other networks, like T-Mobile’s WiFi network, that has only 10 thousand in the US. And now, there is another reason to make your friends in the States jealous, the BT FON autoconnection app for iPhone and Android.
The new BT FON app lets BT Total Broadband customers choose to be automatically logged in to WiFi whenever they are near a BT Fon or Openzone hotspot. Sure, there are a lot of third-party apps already available that detect WiFi. But, they often lead to locked or paid hotspots. This new app is much better. It avoids all that, autoconnects, and it’s free.
Another great feature is the WiFi map that shows all the hotspots nearby, so you’ll always know where to find one. But of course the real advantage here is being able to connect to WiFi easily away from home, and this is why the BT FON partnership works so well. We all want the same thing. WiFi everywhere. The BT FON app brings us one step closer to that reality.
Download the free mobile app for iPhone. (Must be in the UK to download.)
Download the free mobile app for Android. (Must be in the UK to download.)
Your download of the BT FON mobile app also contributes to BBC Children in Need.
To learn more, please read the BT press release, or visit BT.com
2010 25
The New York Forum is off to a Good Start
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Richard Attias and Lance Knobel had very little time to put together The New York Forum, so it is more to their credit that they managed to attract some impressive participants. It is not easy to get Carlos Slim, Rupert Murdoch, Mayor Bloomberg and some other globally influential people to yet another conference, but with a little help from some influential friends such as Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, Richard and Lance managed to pull it off.
As a participant, I found the Forum had just the right duration – it was basically a very active 24 hours for a first gathering. In the future, I can imagine it lasting a bit longer. As for the time of the year, well, it’s not really the best season to be in NYC, but I guess this guarantees that people stay in, because it was extremely hot outside. It was the same formula as Davos, but in reverse: they keep participants inside Congress Center because it’s way too cold.
Highlights? Rupert Murdoch having the cojones to say that America needs oil and “we did not buy Alaska to save the moose.” As opposite as this view is from mine, I have to confess that I found it funny. As to what I would do to improve The New York Forum, I’d maybe balance the views. While Murdoch complained that Obama was way left of center, I would say that if the center is Fox News, so am I, and that there are a lot of people in New York City and even around the world who would like to see somebody like Hillary Clinton join in and debate the right of center tone of the conference. I leave you with a video I filmed of the event. I’m in at some point telling the story of Fon.
At Fon, we are currently designing the retail box of the new Fonera SIMPL. We already sold over 1 million of these wifi routers wholesale to mobile operators. We will soon go retail with this product in Europe and the USA.
Now what we would like to do is to illustrate one side of the box with a comic strip that explains what Fon is in something like 6 squares and in English. We are offering a €300 appreciation prize to the fonero who draws the comic strip that makes it to the box.
So what is Fon? It’s in our web site. Some say, “you share a little WiFi at home and you roam the world for free”. Basically, a Fonera SIMPL is an 802.11n router (connects faster and farther than wireless g) that allows users to connect to WiFi themselves via an encrypted and secure SSID (WiFi signal), but that also has the unique capability to create a second FON SSID that allows people who live nearby or pass by your home to connect to your router and use a small portion of your bandwidth. In exchange for opening a second SSID, you get two major benefits, one is free global WiFi roaming at well over a million hotspots around the world, and the second is that you can make money selling WiFi passes in the Fon network to those who do not have a Fonera (fon router), and therefore do not share their home WiFi, and so have to pay to connect when they find your signal. You keep half of the money and Fon keeps half. Notice that you are selling access to the whole network not just to your router. Another benefit of the Fonera SIMPL is that it auto-connects to iPhone and Android smartphones.
Ideas? Somebody suggested a comic strip telling the story of a lonely WiFi user who had no friends with his conventional WiFi router until he got a Fonera router and then had lots of friends and traveled the world connecting for free. Somebody else added that now he has money and travels the world (clearly a joke as very few make the kind of money you would need for a trip, though many do make enough to subsidize the cost of their broadband). We are open to any ideas that describe the benefits of Fon in a comic strip. Please send your proposals to matias@fon.com.
update: we already have one that we are likely to use.
2010 22
Fonera 2.0n Firmware Update fixes key bugs
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
We want to thank all those who have tested and provided feedback on the Fonera 2.0n. Your input has been a tremendous help in preparing the new firmware version (2.3.6.0). Though still in testing, we think you’ll very happy with the changes we’ve made so far.
First we fixed some issues created by the last upgrade (2.3.5.0 RC1), so Foneros can now share WiFi and use other Fonera 2.0n features at the same time.
Connections with the iPhone3GS and other devices using the BCM4325 Broadcom chipset are both working now. This was the most critical bug affecting users and it is now solved!
Some customers reported that the Fonera 2.0n rebooted when a SIP phone or other VoIP device connected to it. This has been fixed.
We added the usb_modeswitch driver that permits us to support multiple 3G dongles. We’re currently testing 10 different models and expect the Fonera 2.0n to support many more out of the box.
Next up, we’re working on changing the WiFi driver and resolving two new WiFi issues that our beta testers found (Thanks to them!):
1) Macs running on Snow Leopard 10.6x might experience disconnections and can only connect again by turning off/on the Mac AirPort functionality.
The underlying technical reason for the disconnect is as follows: When a Mac AirPort gets turned on, it looks at the beacon for packets to determine the country it is located in. Fonera 2.0n is configured so that the Mac thinks the router is located in the US (or Japan). When the Mac disconnects – the user may not even notice – and then tries to connect to a different signal/router with a different country setting, the Mac gets confused and will not reestablish the connection to the Fonera 2.0n. The user must turn off/on the AirPort to reconnect.
This is not Apple’s fault, but the problem is by no means limited to the Fonera 2.0n. It is a known issue/limitation between Snow Leopard 10.6x and many routers in the market that use one country as standard location. Visit the Apple boards for more info.
We are currently working on a solution that allows the user to set the correct country code.
2) Two testers have experienced micro-disconnections where the public signal disappeared for a couple of seconds. As soon as the signal reappeared, the laptop disconnected and reconnected automatically. We have not yet identified the root cause of this issue.
We will release the Alpha version – for tech-savvy users only – for testing in the next couple days on Fonosfera. In parallel, we will continue to add support for new 3G dongles and other USB devices.
Thanks everyone for your feedback and patience.
Together with FON, our partner BT, has reached its goal of building a million-strong WiFi hotspot network in the UK. The vast majority (more than 85%) of BT’s WiFi hotspots are BT FON hotspots and a direct result of a vision Ian Livingston, BT’s CEO, and Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO Retail, and I, FON’s CEO, had just three years ago.
Back then BT only had some Openzone hotspots in commercial areas. In order to quickly build a truly ubiquitous WiFi network in the UK, BT needed a new approach. BT needed FON.
Teaming up with FON, BT added FON WiFi sharing functionality directly into BT Home Hubs. This made it easy for BT subscribers to become members of the FON community. As members, BT broadband customers who elect to safely share a little of their home WiFi with others, get access to the world’s largest WiFi network in return. Instantly, BT customers who opted in to FON received more access to WiFi, and the joint BT FON network took off, growing faster than anyone expected. In the past six months alone, BT’s WiFi network has doubled. We expect it to continue growing even faster in 2010, thanks in large part to FON.
2010 4
UK to forbid Open WiFi – FON can help
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
As ZDNET reported, the UK government will not make an exception with its proposed Digital Economy Bill for public institutions offering “Open WiFi”. The Digital Economy Bill intends to crackdown on illegal downloads of copyright protected data. The bill suggests that ISPs could shut down a subscriber’s internet connection if the subscriber has repeatedly committed copyright infringement via his internet connection.
These penalties not only apply to individual subscribers, but also to institutions and businesses who leave their WiFi open to guests or members. This means, if a bar-owner leaves his WiFi open, and a customer accesses the internet and downloads content illegally, the bar owner will be held responsible. The ISP could even temporarily suspend the subscription. The same is true for libraries, universities and all kinds of shops. So, de facto, this would mean an end to open and unprotected WiFi in the UK.
That is bad news for anybody who wants to offer WiFi to their guests!
But, the good news is that FON can help!
FON service is unaffected by this bill as we comply with all the requirements of the UK government. FON does not offer open and anonymous WiFi access to the internet, but controls the access. Users who log on to FON need to be registered with FON. We know their identity confirmed by payment details such as credit card or phone number. We comply with all requirements of the UK Telco Regulation and collaborate with authorities if requested to identify copyright infringement cases. Just like other hotspot operators.
So, all a bar, café, shop or institution needs to do is use our Fonera WiFi router instead of an WiFi router with “open WiFi”. With a Fonera router, anyone can offer WiFi safely to their customers and not have to worry about copyright or other infringements. FON manages the access to the network.
The Fonera+ is available for purchase in the UK for just £29.95 at our FON Shop.
2010 14
Fonera 2.0n Quality Survey
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
For a CEO of a start up who launches a new product, what just happened to me is very discouraging. I wrote a post about the new Fonera SIMPL that we will soon launch. I mentioned that it is called SIMPL because, as opposed to the Fonera 2.0N, it is not a buffer to the cloud. I was surprised at the amount of extremely negative comments that I got about the quality of the Fonera 2.0N. I am suprised because the reviews we got in blogs like Techcrunch, Wired, Boing Boing and many others are positive. Whereas, the comments that you can see here are extremely negative.
Now the danger of blogs is that the people who are motivated to comment are in general those who are experiencing problems. So if you listen too much to your blog’s comments, you can get very upset as a CEO. So to find out if the level of dissatisfaction expressed in the post about the SIMPL is realistic, I am running a poll among Fonera 2.0N buyers in both my Spanish and English blogs. And in the meantime, I would like to apologize to those who are experiencing problems and say that we are working very hard on a new firmware release. We also offer discounts to Fonera 2.0G buyers to upgrade to Fonera 2.0N, and I am open to any other ideas that the community has. In the meantime, we are getting large orders for the Fonera SIMPL which is just that, simple, an N router that shares some of your bandwidth so you can roam the world for free and make money when others connect to you.
I end by saying that I use the Fonera 2.0N every day of my life, that I am using one now to write this post. I connect my iPhone, Nexus One, and Blackberry to the Fonera 2.0N. The customer care group is, on purpose, right outside of my office, and I just can’t replicate the bugs that people report. In the past, I used to be the first one to find bugs.
The translation from Spanish is this:
The first choice is, while you would like to see improvements in the Fonera 2.0N it is a product you can use.
The second choice is, as the Fonera 2.0N stands now, with the current firmware, you cannot use it.
2010 13
2010: the Year of WiFi, the Year of FON
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
FON struggled initially in 2009. But we managed a steady turnaround and ended the year with phenomenal results. In September, we reached breakeven and launched a new WiFi device, the Fonera 2.0n. From Q1 to Q4, we increased our monthly gross revenues by 250%, decreased costs by more than 60% and tripled WiFi access. FON now has over one million FON Spots worldwide.
The outlook for FON in 2010 is even better thanks to the ever-increasing demand for WiFi. FON is well positioned, growing strong in several directions, including sales of passes and routers to individuals, and partnerships with fixed and mobile operators.
The FON community is growing because people want more access to free WiFi while roaming, and a superior WiFi experience at home. Our fixed partner list, including BT, ZON TVCABO and Comstar Russia, is growing because operators now clearly understand the importance WiFi and the benefits to partnering with FON. They reduce churn and customer acquisition costs, sell more broadband and increase ARPU. Our mobile partnerships, including E-Plus Group (a division of KPN), SFR and others yet to be disclosed, are growing because operators can offload data traffic. In sum, mobile and fixed operators who partner with FON make more money, reduce costs and get higher valuations than the competition.
Industry players are calling 2010 “the Year of WiFi”. RBS expects WiFi to play a key role in the world of fixed and mobile Telcos and significantly influence their value. For example, E-Plus, our mobile partner in Germany, was the only mobile company not downgraded by RBS for 2010. RBS and Morgan Stanley recently named BT, our major Telco partner in the UK, “Top Pick” for 2010. RBS specified that BT’s partnership with FON (BT FON) put it “in a strong position” and offered it “a great chance to benefit from WiFi.”
Benefits aside, many operators may soon be forced to embrace WiFi out of pure necessity. WiFi is quickly becoming an alternative to mobile data subscription. Demand is increasing rapidly for WiFi-only devices such as the iPod Touch and for WiFi-enabled devices, including smartphones (especially Apple iPhone, Google Android and RIM Blackberry), laptops, notebooks, eBooks, tablets and even TVs. Within three years, mobile networks may become “infill”, useful only between WiFi spots. Within five years, all phones in the US may be smartphones. RBS notes that WiFi progressions like these may very well occur faster than current market estimates due to the enormous cost savings for the customer (up to 50% on a usage-based mobile phone bill) and the influx of WiFi innovation (“smarter” gadgets, faster WiFi signals, value-added services such as voicemail to email, etc.). Finally, attempts to regulate or constrain WiFi growth or VoIP are not expected to stand up to public pressure.
I am calling 2010 “the Year of FON”. Not just because what’s good for WiFi is good for FON and our partners, but based on FON’s record-breaking sales already this January. We sold over 400,000 Foneras SIMPL to an important mobile operator, our largest order in history. We also have several new partners and products in the pipeline.
I predicted the imminent importance of WiFi when I started FON in 2005. Since then, WiFi usage has skyrocketed and FON has become the biggest WiFi community in the world. With no slowdown in sight, 2010 should be the year for both.
Sources:
RBS: Telecommunications Equity Europe Report, 13 January 2010
Morgan Stanley: Telecommunications Services Industry Review, 4 January 2010
Frost & Sullivan, 2010 Outlook & Forecast: Mobile & Wireless Communications