2006 6
Fon and Universities
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Most universities in developed countries have wifi, but few have wifi that is open to all. Fon wants to change this. Fon has a new proposal for universities and is this one: we will give universities as many routers as they need to provide good coverage on campus and will administer over the web free user to all university students and professors. Moreover, Fon will provide free global wifi roaming to these students and professors.
In exchange universities will agree that all of those who are not students or professors, but detect the Fon signal, will pay 2 dollars or euros per 24 hours of usage. In this way, wifi access that is not free -but very affordable- is provided to anyone who is nearby or a guest at the university and is not a fonero.
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sara on April 7, 2006 ·
is this cheaper than having campus wide internet access provided by the campus free with wifi? Fon is definitely better in towns cities countrysides where most folk are shleppers(use the net like walking in a mall on saturday) not students(need the net to study)
However campus is a place foe studying with the accent on info and internet wifi is almost a given on most campuses. entering that market is tough .
Trace on April 7, 2006 ·
Genius!
gerhard on April 8, 2006 ·
@sara : in some aspects you are right. but take into your consideration all the conference areas and public areas, where visitors of students and professors are gathering, remember the many international conferences and meetings that happen in univiveristes all over the world. many intellectual people are travelling worldwide not only in business, also in science. for them a unique login surface, provided by FON would be a fascinating aspect, i suppose. this is my personal opinion only…
gerhard on April 8, 2006 ·
@chris: do you really think they will surf, when looking world champion ship? how many dualphones are in action, really ?
Boris on April 9, 2006 ·
@gerhard: it’s not about dual phones… it’s about promotion… people do have lots of gadgets from which they could access the internet…
Personally, I would make access to the internet at this BIG event free of charge, since FON is in development phase and needs also press coverage…! It’s about that…
chris on April 9, 2006 ·
@gerhard: dont underestimate this!
we organize some non-profit events with 500 to 4000 visitors a year allover europe with visitors from the whole world. you wonder how many people have pda’s with wifi to check their mail, and how many bring their laptop. skype is quite popular and is running on some pdas and smartphones,soi expect some users from outside of germany that would use such a service, especially around hotels, that charge ridicoulus prices in germany for wifi (8€/h).
actually i wrote a businessplan like FON in 2002/2003, but we were to early (and our team was not good enoug to attract investors) and everybody wanted to go for UMTS.
And sure: they want surf while watching world champion ship. But a game has only 90minutes, and then you want to know how to get to the cool parties in town.
Trace on April 11, 2006 ·
@all: It must not be forgotten that these students will leave temporarily (Christmas break) and permnanently one day upon graduation. It is most important that they take with them their FON “experience”. By doing so they will expect WiFi capablilities where ever they choose to go. This will create even further demand for FON’s services, which is cheap to free Wifi depending how one chooses to sign up. So, what are bums today squatting on the free service will become the Bills and Linuses of FON’s not so distant future.
Exellent marketing strategy by Martin. The ideas never stop coming in…
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chris on April 7, 2006 ·
hey martin,
dont you have any plans for fon coverage during the football world championship in germany in 2 months?
Chris