2005 6
FON on the go
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
A Linus asked me today if, once FON is launched in France, French Linuses will be able to connect in Spain and vice versa. My answer is YES. One of the most incomprehensible policies of major operators like Vodafone, Orange and T Mobile is precisely their roaming policy. In an open border Europe and a global internet without borders, these operators over-charge you as soon as you step out of your country. Our plan is to have FON in as many countries as possible and enable FON members to connect wherever they are.
Imagine you have a WiFiFON, you go to Paris and you receive a phone call to your Spanish landline number. Well, the person calling you will pay what he/she pays for a call to a landline number in Spain (or nothing, if the person uses a flat fee calling plan) and you don’t pay any roaming charge when receiving that call in Paris. But there’s more: all your calls to other WiFiFONS are free and all other calls are at really competitive rates, similar to Skype rates.
2005 31
WiFiFONS
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Our plan at FON is first to start a movement to expand coverage and then, in a second phase, to launch FON applications, starting with WiFi phones (WiFiFONS) with VOIP rates and no line costs for Linuses. However, if you’re one of those Linus pioneers that just can’t wait, I recommend you try PeopleCall’s WiFi telephone service. I tried it today and it works really well. For now, it will work in your house and where you catch a WiFi signal, but with FON you’ll be able to use it in many more places and PeopleCall’s WiFi phones will be compatible with FON.
I’ll also take this opportunity to thank Herme Garcia, who’s been advising me on how to use WiFiFONS. I’m proposing a plan to him whereby calls between WiFiFONS and PeopleCall would be free. My idea is that – contrary to Vodafone, Movistar or Amena, who set ridiculously high rates for inter-operator calls, that are in the end borne by the client- calls between new VOIP operators wouldn’t be charged.