Comments on: FON, and why sharing WiFi’s a cool technology for Africa

By: @notmecharles

@notmecharles — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:47:57 +0000

actually have a unit here now and some modified wireless routers.
works fine but trying to get it setup as a mesh network gateway so it can spread. open-mesh networking…
Primarily for expanding access to social networking sites 1st then later to the whole internet.
Like the Minneapolis local city network.
Think it now has access to the internet but it initially only served local information and services to government services.
Charles

By: GIDEON LARTEY

GIDEON LARTEY — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:08:37 +0000

i will b verry glad if we have fon in Ghana. i belong to the linus accra group. we have been looking foward for this day.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:35:12 +0000

Sara – you’ll be able to get dialup access in South Africa, and possibly faster access, though it can be quite expensive. It’s certainly not a problem to use Wifi to share the connection around your home – it takes a little work to do this with a modem, but it’s not impossible – but I can’t tell you whether sharing or reselling the connection via Fon would be legal under South Africa law. I’ll contact some friends and see if anyone has a legal ruling on wifi sharing in SA.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:11:46 +0000

hi,can i get wireless while in South Africa.I live in Johannesburg,I am thinking of getting FON to be able to get WIFI,and then internet even though its slow etc.?

By: parol

parol — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:32:51 +0000

Kjempe kuuuul hjemmeside du har.

By: j|turn

j|turn — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 17:40:09 +0000

A Critical Look at FON

Andy Carvin has posted a video where Martin Varsavsky present the idea and rationale behind FON – an initiative to provide open wireless internet for the masses. I’ve been trying to get my head around this FON-idea for quite some time now, but I still…

By: Al

Al — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:22:08 +0000

The FON’s vision is one that I share. I am an African, living in South Africa. Bandwidth costs in South Africa are some of the highest in the world. The country is still under one telecome monopoly. I have recently setup a couple of hotspots using a local billing system, skyrove. They allow me to set price and take an increasing share of revenue as my revenues increase. The model is working for me. Is the FON planning on doing the same? Check out http://www.yeahfi.com and http://www.skyrove.com to get more info on the local guys.

By: steve's gallery

steve's gallery — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:39:11 +0000

FON – Freakishly Overhyped Network

Like a terrible blog meme, the recent news about FON is spreading like a bad case of syphillis across the blogocube.
What is FON?
In their own words,
FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and e

By: Boris Anthony

Boris Anthony — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:28:46 +0000

In my grand tradtion of giving you a hard time on your comments…

I myself am not entirely clear on all this but Ethan I would very much like to discuss this topic with you and two people who have VERY valuable input on this topic. One is Michael Lenczner, whom I have mentioned to you many times in many contexts, who is the founder of Ile Sans Fil, the 100% volunteer run free wifi group in Montreal (over 100 hotspots and 13000 users), who are also the developpers of the FOSS “WiFiDog” package. The other is Steven Mansour who also started his own community wifi program, worked as R&D, support and testing for a WiFi AP manufacturer (alongside yours truly) for 2 years, has played with every AP out there and who states categorically “almost all open-source distros have included bandwidth shaping since 2002″…

Is there a case of “Starry eyes for Martin” going on? A little “post-Davos inbreeding” perhaps? Everytime I mention WiFiDog to FON supporters I get blankness, giving me the impression they have really very little clue what this all about… I’m not accsuing you of this per-se. But you are implicated. ;)

Can you imagine the good that could have been done if a bit of the R&D budget for developing the FON platform had been used to further develop WiFiDog?! Martin could have his for-profit product AND provide a free alternative for community groups, and Mike could actually afford his dinner. Oh.. wait.. that’s called competition! Pesky market.

Here’s a little pushback from the community, from someone trying to do the work *you* inspired him, and many many of us, to do:
meanwhile, groups like FON seriously overhype their technologies and pull in tens of millions… so sad. maybe FON will grow into its hype (hell, it’s got $20Million) to do so. but when i think what $20 Million would “buy” — well, it’s sorta sad really.”

Sorry to be a pest again. ;)

By: El Oso, El Moreno, and El Abogado » Blog Archive » Market Viraling, Part II

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:25:04 +0000

[...] It’s not that I think bloggers should not be allowed to earn money. Quite the opposite, but I do think a certain etiquette should be encouraged. Big props to both Rebecca and Ethan for making so clear in their press releases that 1.) they are on the Fon board and 2.) they receive equity and 3.) what their criticisms of the company so far are. Anyone who reads their posts immediately understands where they are coming from. But that is not true of all the Fon press releases I saw. As far as I can tell, Fon is a great company whose success will be bolstered by its talented board of advisors and directors. But I really hope that an institutional policy is put into place which says that all Fon marketers (ie. “bloggers”) that gain money from the company, clearly disclose the fact. It will ensure their success all the more. Otherwise, I’ll find myself skeptical of everything I read about Fon. Does Doc Searls have a stake? What about Om Malik and Pau? [...]