The new FON WiFi USB Stick!

Now this is one that isn’t generally advocated but I say FON should focus it’s attention on being in various bathrooms of the world…why?

1. Toilets are notoriously bad for good service be it mobile, or other WiFi signals.

2. Particularly for women or men who need to sit to do "their business" often sit there for many minutes, 5,6 or even 10 minutes at a time. If there isn’t anything to read (and often there is) your device + WiFi is perfect, play a game? read your news? RSS? blog about your experience? All can be done if FON is in your toilet.

3. It’s also a fantastic means of escape….FON Toilet, FON in every toilet in the world….

You can download FONSPOT over here, the advantage of using this software is that it turns your Mac and Linux device into an active FONSPOT which will share your WiFi without needing a router.

Reach further with your WiFi is the slogan on the new FON website!

By Wellington Grey

A really funny cartoon depicting "the truth" and "irrational fear" of WiFi available at here .

Internet specialists will be recruited to check on the security of the governments free Wi-Fi initiative….and those security consultants would provide report or expertise to ensure contractors abide by that "security".

I’ll be curious to see what the security experts will have to say to this….given that most "experts" would still want to have WPA-2 encryption making it quite unfeasible for a muni-WiFi deployment.

Today we are launching fonero.be together with our partners Scarlet and Tidings. Fonero.be is a new ADSL wireless broadband provider based in Antwerp, Belgium. By combining their innovative WiFi services with the FON Community, Fonero.be customers and Foneros can easily connect to the Internet using WiFi around Belgium. Pricing for this service is 29.95€ per month for 6MB service. Thanks to teaming up with Fonero.be, and Scarlet as the ADSL and voice supplier, the Belgian market will provide a dense network of FONspots that are not only important for Foneros in Belgium but also those who visit Belgium.

FON plans to expand wireless network in German cities

In a company press release, WLAN community operator FON says it plans to give German cities a helping hand in setting up wireless access points (hotspots) for Internet access. In this campaign, the operator will be providing as many as 5000 WLAN routers and signal amplifiers for free to be used by communities in public areas and municipal buildings.

The cities have to compete for the FON City Initiative. FON says that cities will be choosing based on the number and location of public areas and buildings, visitor and tourism statistics, and the willingness of city administration to cooperate. FON spokesperson Florian Forster told heise online that the company is currently looking into whether and how FON users can take part in the selection of cities. At the moment, the form at FON City’s website can only be used to propose cities and communities.

Tags: FON

Free WiFi With Ads Update

In early April FON blogged about an idea they were pursuing; free wifi for viewing ads. They continue to study and improve upon the idea, more changes are likely. Quote:

 I wanted to share our current ideas and get your feedback. For watching a short add someone begging for wifi would receive 15 minutes of free wifi. They could only receive this once, watching another ad would not give them more free time. Hopefully this taste of FON would encourage them to join us so they wouldn’t have to beg for wifi anymore. They can purchase La Fonera and share a little wifi at home so they can roam the world for free!