2006 16
Marko Ahtisaari, Leading Fonero in Finland
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
I have known Marko for years. I have tremendous admiration for him. Marko is one of those unusual techies who can combine art and technology. When Marko talks to you about things on the net he is aware not only of the technology platform underneath the site but his insight also combines a thorough understanding of design and social function. In the past I have frequently consulted with Marko on many ideas for different ventures. Indeed when I first thought of FON as a pan European WiMax operator Marko was a great critic of that project, positive yet clearly pointing out to me the difficulties of WiMax as a new technology. And when I thought of the “second coming” of FON as a software download that turns wifi routers into members of a global family of routers who share wifi Marko was much more enthusiastic. Now let me disclose exactly what arrangement we have with Marko. Marko is a full time employee of Nokia, not of FON. His job as a lead fonero is similar to an advisory board position, Marko will advise FON on how to start the FON movement in Finland. For those in Finland reading this post and unaware of FON let me explain that FON is a global community of people who share wifi freely with each other. But FON is a private company belonging to its employees, Skype, Google, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and the fonero leaders in each country and the for profit element of FON comes from users who are not wifi donors. We share those with fixed and eventually mobile operators who will partner with us.
So welcome Marko to FON and we stand ready to support you in explaining FON to the Finish people so we can turn Helsinki and other cities into shared wifi areas.
FON, share little, gain a lot.
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teleken on February 16, 2006 ·
FON, share little, gain a lot.
This was a great statment i will remember to will!
As to Marko! I like to welcome you, And thank you for caring enough to make a bold stance for Fons Dream.
Shaka on February 17, 2006 ·
Please allow me some critics to FON strategy. I fully understand Marco’s oppinion about wifi and wimax. But as we know, when Nokia snooze, Finland gets ill. Nokia is currently developing series of mobile phones, supporting wifi and GSM standards. As an employee of Nokia, of course he will support the wifi idea, otherwise he is working against his company and its aims.
But take also into consideration the fact, that the tenders for wimax standards took place already in many European countries, and the development of infrastructure is starting. Then ask yourself how GSM, which was so successful is working. Probably not because the coverage of the devices was about 100 m.
So, imagine I am a guy who travell around the world and want to have internet on my laptop whereever I am as I have mobile phone contact wherever I go. Thats why, in my oppinion, in short term the services of FON should be based on wifi, in long term on wimax. It should be a kind of global wireless ISP, using the infrastructure of local companies, holding licences for developing infrastructure for wimax.
And wimax has all chances to develop to worldwide standard, as a number of big companies are uniting their effeirt for its development (check members of wimax forum).
Please correct me if I am wrong at certain point.
Tero Lehto on February 25, 2006 ·
I don’t know in detail what’s the strategy of Nokia concerning WiMax technology, but I know for sure Nokia’s CEO Jorma Ollila said in 3GSM 2006 (Barcelona) that the company is already “working on” to bring WiMax to phones. Ollila estimated it could take until 2008 before we’ll see WiMax in mobile phones.
It’s easy to verify this from many news sources: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=3GSM+Ollila+WiMax .
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Lasse Enersen on February 16, 2006 ·
Way to go Marko! We Finns know him first as the former president’s son, but he surely is one of the more interesting people in the industry. He’ll make a good leading fonero.