Very impressive…18 million euros of funding from Google, Skype, Index, & Sequoia…. A global board of advisors of Internet & blogging rock stars…
This is great for a European, and Spain-based Internet venture, to be in such a global spotlight.
And it’s a real testament to the marketing savvy of Varsavsky himself. Frankly, I’m still very dubious that FON will work, for many reasons, but at least now they have the money and partners to try it under the best conditions possible.
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Agree with Yannick that it’s great for Europe and especially for Spain to have such a prominent innovative start-up.
I fully share the bigger idea behind FON to facilitate a wireless network operated by people for people – true p2p.
But why does it have to be via another business layer and not open source, or just some marketing push from the big players.
Google and Skype could put there money behind an open-source software securing the private Wifis, while ensuring security.
Or even simpler. Google includes a Personal Firewall, etc. in its Google Pack and with some marketing explains people that they can keep their Wifis open while keeping their personal computers and network secure.
Just an idea. I still hope FON can acquire enough Wifi spots virally to achieve critical mass.
But so far I found at least in Barcelona and New York (in almost every Starbucks) enough open Wifis whenever I needed one to spare a Starbucks subscriptions (actually internal T-Mobile sources confirmed that WiFi subscriptions in NYC dropped dramatically)
So, maybe FON is just another solution that looks for a problem which has been solved already by the people themselves…
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In general, it looks to me like now 1999 again and we all should try to get some money for a Web2.0 or 3.0 idea
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