2006 8
Fon in Italia
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Eric, Robert, Diego and I spent the day in Milano today. It was the first day in which Fon employees went to Italy but it was amazing to see that we already have over 800 foneros in Italy and Telecom Italia only has around 1000 of their hotspots and we had NEVER been to Italy as a company (I lived in Italy when I was in college and speak Italian).
In Milano we met great people who showed tremendous interest in Fon. Basically we spent all day in a hotel room greeting Italian Foneros and people who we wanted to contact. On the unusual side we learned that Italy is one of the only countries in the world in which a significant portion of the DSL customers pay by the hour. I personally wanted to thank Stefano Vitta who has been helping us as a volunteer in Italy since we started. ¡Grazie Stefano!
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teleken on March 8, 2006 ·
and new hardware coming out http://www.eweek.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s=26072&a=172991&po=1,00.asp
Damien on March 8, 2006 ·
1000 TI hotspots are well positioned however in public areas. You may get 100 times as many foneros, but will their routers provide coverge where anyone else wants to actually use wifi? i guess if you get enough foneros you’re hoping at least some % of them will be in decent locations.
Martín Varsavsky on March 8, 2006 ·
Indeed Sara.
The ones who pay by the hour are a problem for Fon and we don´t have a solution for them. They should not be foneros unless they go for a flat rate. Fortunately there are millions also with flat rate.
Regards,
teleken on March 8, 2006 ·
If there are people that are paying for Survive by the hour, but are in a good traffic area could’t they charge the $2 or so aday and make more then enough money to cover the cost per hour?
Martín Varsavsky on March 8, 2006 ·
Damien,
This is not the case, because Fon, for example, is being adopted by a lot of bars, by Bill type foneros who want to make money when facing key areas, and Fon grows much faster than Telecom Italia in number of hotspots. Moreover, in a year we will most likely start roaming agreements and everyone will have wifi everywhere, which is best for society, the users and the companies.
Regards,
sara on March 9, 2006 ·
fons concept is trueque or bartar.. why not incorporate a way in which fon subsidizes or out right pays the user to just leak wifi? a public hot spot . Instead of telefonica going to a bar you could go to they guy living near the bar and hed be your leaker. He could be paid to do so or fon could pay half his bill…Its clear that fon is a leak systen not a provider and thus not going to shtup or push adverts to wifi users as telefonica does to its wifiers….a clear alternative ..
Martín Varsavsky on March 9, 2006 ·
Hi Sara,
This is what we do at Fon, we have the Bills and the Linus. The Bills do that, live next to a bar, sell connectivity for 2 euros/dollars per day and make half of what they earn. Linuses, however, at Fon don´t pay in Bills hotspots.
Regards,
EdoM on March 9, 2006 ·
i you was in Marriot hotel you had the occasion to browse trough my FON hotspot.. i live just beside the hotel! 🙂
I had liked to meet you, but i know just now! 🙁
Se siete stati all’hotel marriot di Milano, avreste avuto l’occasione di navigare dal mio hotspot FON (abito dietro all’hotel).
Vi avrei incontrati molto volentieri, ma l’ho saputo solo ora.
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sara on March 8, 2006 ·
they pay by the hour? how does that ffect fon ? will they close their wifi when they go out? Why not have one guy pay the morning hour while leaking to a second and then the second guy pays afternoon hours and leaks to the first…Can fon be usedby neighbors in spain to help half internet costs? i know in my building 3 neighbors splitthe telefonica adsl cost by sharing it…thru telefon wires but not by wifi.
fon could be a way for sharing internet in fixed settings as well as for mobile users with laptop or cellfon skype able fons