The Fonera is a plug and play product in Europe in the sense that if you plug the Fonera into most ISP routers or routers like Linksys, Netgear, D Link and you wait an hour the Fonera works (this issue of waiting an hour is very important as routers get their firmware when they are plugged for the first time). But in the States we get many cases in which the Fonera is not plug and play and we have been getting some bad reviews at Dell because of this. In the States we know the Fonera is plug and play when connected to all the private label routers like Linksys, Netgear, but unfortunately the management console is needed to connect the Fonera to many routers provided by operators such as Comcast, Verizon, Cablevision. One of the problems we have is that in the States large ISPs and Cable Operators change their routers very frequently and we don´t really know their inventory. This is a very different situation from what we find in Europe with BT for example. BT, or Neuf are operators which control the services they give to customers using sophisticated boxes with tons of features including TV over DSL. In the States operators give very inexpensive boxes with very few features and constantly change to find the cheapest suppliers. I don´t know if there are companies in the States that actually do this type of testing meaning that they get a WiFi router and can test it against the most common DSL and Cable Modem installs that people have in the States.

Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars

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Matin on March 31, 2008  · 

🙂 You certainly can’t compare the Orange LiveBox to the junk Comcast hands out. It’s like comparing a BMW to a Chevy. It begs the question whether it has to do with the expectations and desires of American consumers or the culture within American companies.

Matin

3.0 rating

Gustavo L on April 4, 2008  · 

…In the States operators give very inexpensive boxes with very few features and constantly change to find the cheapest suppliers…..

While you maybe correct in your assessment. The USA is the still the biggest market in the world. Adapt or don’t sell into the USA.

3.0 rating

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