Sunday, February 05, 2006

 

Everybody have FON tonight!

Martin Varsavsky announces FON in the US tomorrow! Varsavsky's FON is not the stock symbol for Sprint. It is a way to share a Wi-Fi hotspot safely and sustainably, a way to spread Wi-Fi where it has not gone before, a (potential) way to have Wi-Fi service for free anywhere in the world (if you're a Linus), to make money (if you're a Bill) and, in any case, to get Wi-Fi service wherever there's a FON hotspot for about the price of a subway fare.

Big news. Varsavsky writes
. . . today I have a great announcement to make: FON can now count Google , Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers. They’ve joined us to help advance the FON movement, leading a group that has put 18 million Euros into FON and also committed to give us a strategic boost that should help us make this great idea into a great platform for everyone who wants a faster, cheaper and more secure wireless Internet.
*snip*
I had never been to Silicon Valley until FON came about. Showing up from Spain with a business plan in my pocket and getting the support of two of the largest internet companies in the world in less than one month made me realize how it is that American dominates the internet. It´s all about willing to take risks.

I met Martin when I was invited to Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombing, last March 11. He organized the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security that I participated in. We produced a good statement there on the role of the Internet in democracy. I wrote a little bio of Martin here. I am proud to be a member of FON's US Advisory Board, but more than a bit nervous about how ready the FON implementation is for the general public. The idea, though, is wonderful. And the implementation will benefit from a culture of openness, transparency and receptiveness to suggestions from all quarters.

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Comments:
isenberg, i would be interested to hear some commentary on 'quantum communications', 'quantum internet', 'quantum cryptography'. is it possible to use quantum entaglement and teleportation for communication purposes?
 
already been done:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/30/1440204&tid=95
and failed:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/16/2146259
 
What will happen when ISPs discover that the access that they have sized for a specific amount if traffic is genrating much more because it is being shareed with the outside world.

Somebody will have to pay for this traffic and it seems unfair to \have an ISP pay for a "FREE" service.
 
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