2005 26
Bloggers of the World Unite… and join our board!
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Fon is booming. I have requests of people who want to partner with FON from 17 countries so far. In Spain, where we are first launching FON, we have thousands of volunteers waiting for our software to be ready in order to download it, flash it to their access points and link all wifi access points into a country wide network. We have hundreds of volunteers who are also interested in going into the homes of people who are less techie and install FON for them. We are launching FON in Sweden at SIME on November 9th and FON in France at Les Blogs on December 5th.
Now here´s my offer to all top bloggers of the world. Join our board and become our partners. In Spain we are making a board that is made of top Spanish bloggers, like Alvy at Microsiervos. I would like to extend a similar offer to the top bloggers of any country. We are going to create a subsidiary for each country that FON goes into and we would like to offer the top bloggers of that country a seat on the board of the FON and a 1% ownership stake. Please contact me if you are a top blogger and are interested in joining your local board of FON.
2005 24
FON works with cable
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
We’ve been getting lots of questions from people using cable and not ADSL and I want to reassure everyone that FON works with cable.
Whether you have ADSL or cable, FON is a software that you download onto your PC and from then on configures your WiFi access point. The focus here is the access point that connects to the FON network, not the ADSL or cable connection behind it.
2005 24
First we launch FON with Linuses, then with Bills
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
In the WiFi world, you have different types of users. On one hand, we have the Bills, who yearn to buy their Linksys access point and then go out and fish some gringos and charge them. For them, FON will be available around mid-november.
Then,we have the Linuses, who simply want to tell other Linuses where they are so they can connect and roam for free. This is fairly obvious considering that if you stroll the streets of Spain, you will find that between 30% and 70% of WiFi networks are OPEN. FON will be available to Linuses by early November.
Today, the problem is that no one really knows where the Linuses are. And this is what FON aims to solve. How? Well, if you’re a Linus and your WiFi is OPEN, then you can register on our website and tell us where exactly your access point is. Reciprocally, FON will tell you where the other FON access points are and we will share this information only with other Linuses. If your WiFi is password-protected, you can give us the password so we can input it in our database and we will give you roaming through the open WiFi networks of other Linuses. If you want to be a Linus with a password, we can give you one so you can replace your old one.
To be sure, FON will set up access points in important sites where no WiFi coverage currently exists. In this respect, Linus will enjoy free access to the FON network while Bills and Gringos will be charged.
So basically, FON will have two types of access points: those that we will be able to see and monitor from our headquartes (using Linksys access points for now and then other brands later on) and those that we won’t monitor but that we will put in our maps based on the information Linuses send us.
The crux of FON is to interchange bandwidth in your home with bandwidth outside of your home. This will enable you to pay exactly what you’re paying now but with much better service, since what you’ll have is access to a wifi nation. In addition, I realised today that thanks to WiFiFONs – which we plan to launch in November (a mobile WiFi telephone that connects to the FON network) – and the flat fee for a fixed line offered by Telefonica, Jazztel or Ya.comm to which most FON members are already subscribed to, users will be able to do something really neat.
The idea is the following: that each FON member connects his/her WIFIFON to the flat fee she/he is subscribed to so that, instead of paying us, say, 5c a minute, the user speaks for FREE. I suppose my marketing colleagues will say that this is shooting ourselves in the foot but while we will have to find another way of making money, from a user’s perspective, I think it’s great to be able to use your own connection to transfer mobile-to-phone.
How does this work? This little gadget might be the answer: a VOIP switch connected to a public network, a tool that can organise your own telecommunication. For the techis out there, it’s simple: become a FON member and buy a WiFiFON but configure it so that instead of paying us you have calls coming out of the flat fee you are already subscribed to. In other words, it will be like a mobile phone that uses your fixed line without any additional cost. This wouldn’t be something FON would do, members would have to install it themselves. Moreover, even without FON, you can already do this just by downloading VOIP software in your laptop. You buy this gadget, and you get something better than SkypeOut, because your new tool is SkypeOut for FREE!
One thing is clear though: this little installation would never reach the quality of your current mobile since, where there is no FON, you won’t have any coverage!
2005 22
Two from Ya.com and one from Jazztel on FON’s board
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
I’m beefing up FON’s board and decided to ask former Jazztel and Ya.com colleagues to jump on the FON bandwagon. And I’m thrilled they’ve accepted. On the Ya.com side, we have Alvaro Ibanez (a.k.a Alvy), who’s very well known here in Spain with Microsiervos and Internality, and Jon Berrojalbiz, who started the very successful TradingMotion . On the Jazztel side, I’m joined by former managing director Antonio Fuentes, who has partnered with me on Sybilla and who is its CEO.
Sometimes, we have parties and get-togethers with all those who worked at Jazztel and Ya.com in the early days. For me, they’re like Christmas parties in the office, with a strong feelings of déjà-vu mixed with memories of intense work.
How many entered these companies as employees and left as entrepreneurs? What about Miguel Salis, ex CFO of Jazztel, who is now building wind farms across Spain valued at over 200 million euros.
And Axel Serena, other one who really made it and who, I’ve heard, is about to lift off pretty soon.
What do I want from people who work for me? Well, basically I’d like to see my employees enjoy their last stint as an “employee” with me!
Jon, for example, had the the entrepreneurial spirit in his early 20s. I met him in 1999 when he was still a student but had already registered the domain favoritos.com, which I liked very much. When I saw that he owned it, I asked him if he wanted to sell it to me. Jon simply answered : “I know who you are and if you interview me,I will give it to you”. From there, we started working together, him, first as an employee, then as a partner and now as business buddies. Ya.com and Jazztel were, more than anything, made up of people who dreamed of creating something. For those who are nostaligic, here is an old powerpoint that tells the Ya.com story from the very beginning.
2005 21
Swisscom and FON
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
FON is my company. I own it 100%… so far. I am close to selling 50% of FON to Swisscom. Swisscom is a $20bn market cap telco with some unique features, the most noticeable being that it has no debt. Other than that (and more relevant to me), Swisscom owns Eurospot, the largest owner of wifi hotsptos in Europe. And so far it´s been losing money with it. Now why would I team up with Swisscom to launch FON? Because I think that FON is exactly what Swisscom needs to really have wifi coverage in Europe. FON is a piece of software that turns everyone´s wifi access point into a part of the FON network. And to roam with Eurospot will make us grow faster. FON is my answer to the 3G fiasco. FON is free to all of those who contribute access points, the rest pay to use it: a fair deal. We have not yet launched FON. The official launch date is November 7th in Spain. But through my Spanish blog we have already 697 volunteers ready to install FON in their wifi access points and more importantly, ready to install it in their neighbors access points. And more and more are showing up every day. When FON is up, people will be able to make almost free phone calls, send pictures over their wifi digital cameras, get songs in their wifi ipods, etc. The funny thing is that the FON network has been built, it´s just not connected. Our software does that. And we have many international users ready to download our software as well. FON is the P2P of wifi. The only difference being is that while wifi owners exchange bandwidth for free as if they were songs, others pay to listen!
Sorry that there are so many more articles about FON in Spanish. As soon as we do our Spanish launch we will move on to France, Germany, Sweden and there will be more written in other languages. Interested in working or collaborating with us? Write to me!
2005 21
Ideas for services using the FON network
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
One of the things that I love about starting FON is not only the idea of building a wifi nation, but also all the opportunities this opens up. Every day, I receive tons of ideas from enthusiastic FON volunteers. Some are already thinking of producing content for WiFi TV. Others seem more interested in e-commerce, like the one I’ve attached at the bottom of this post.
What I want to make clear is that FON is not like Vodafone, Movistar or Organge in the sense that, contrary to these, we are not going to charge people for using our network. The strength of the FON network lies in its collaborative effort, and we invite all those who have ideas for FON services to share their ideas on this blog or on the web. The more orginal ideas that surface, the better!
2005 21
FON and questions about security
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Some people are writing telling me they’re a little preoccupied with the security issue when using FON. For me, worrying about this is really unnecessary. If we want absolute security for our computers, then we simply shouldn’t connect them to the internet nor should we leave our computer in a place where a burglar can break in and steal your hard drive. But for those who accept to live with a tiny bit of risk when surfing the internet, FON will actually increase security in the WiFi world. Let me explain.
First of all, a quick recap of the WiFi world in numbers: according to our studies, 35% of the wifi networks in Spain are open, which, in theory, any criminal can anonymously enter and hack. What FON does is that it asks its members to identify themselves and we give them a username and password that works with their access point, and, if they’re, Linuses, that they can use on other FON access points everywhere. In this way, only FON members will be able to connect to FON access points. To be sure, it makes the anonymous entry of a criminal into the FON network difficult. Compared to anonymous prepaid mobiles, this is much safer. And with today’s WiFi as well.
2005 14
Launching FON: The Power of Blogging
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Last Saturday I started FON. It´s been the craziest 6 days of my business life. And my business life is not short. I started Viatel, Jazztel and Ya.com. But in those three cases the launch itself was not an event. I don´t remember the actual first week of Viatel. I had the idea in 1990, a sort of virus that reverted the calling patterns of international telecom networks and gave foreigners US dial tone. It was a big idea, but it took me maybe a year of hard labor to get to the level of global awareness that I have achieved in 6 days with FON through my blog. And it took 10 years and a great team effort for the company to be worth over $1bn.
Read More
2005 9
Share WIFI, build a WIFI Nation
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
I started FON, my new company in Spain. This is my third telecom/internet company in this country of 44 million people. I started Jazztel in 1998, today Spain´s second largest publicly traded telecom operator, and Ya.com, today Spain´s second largest internet site after Terra. But while Jazztel and Ya.com are very local, FON can be very global, like Skype. FON is the P2P of WIFI and I want to find the best way to launch FON around Europe and the rest of the world.
What is FON? Very simple. At FON we developed a software client that you download from the net and you install it in your wifi base station. At that moment your wifi gives you a password of your choice, but starts accepting all the other passwords of all the other FON members. FON is based on the premise that, with wifi now being 54MB on cable and DSL platforms of 1MB or more, wifi users are only taking advantage of 3% of their capacity on the average. Or in other words, wasting 97% of their capacity. At the same time, what users want is for their laptops, PDAs, wifi phones, and soon wifi enable ipods or wifi enable digital cameras, to access to everyone else´s wifi so they can walk around cities taking pictures, listening to music, playing games on wifi playstations, etc. And this we accomplish by turning millions of wifi installations into a unified wifi FON network with a standard interface to accept all kind of wifi enabled devices.
So what do I need? I have the funds to launch FON in other countries. I also have the software and the ad campaigns. What I need is local entrepreneurs/managers who want to launch FON in their countries. Also FON will have much more value if it´s global. Want to join me? Do write to me through this site. Tell me about your background and local resources. By the way, even though “FON” sounds like telecoms, FON is a tribe in Africa (google it) and joining FON is like becoming a member of a bandwidth sharing tribe. How do we make money doing this? Contact me and I will let you know.
