FON squashed overnight…
October 16, 2006…and nobody seems to be talking about it.
For a while FON bragged how it was able to surpass the wifi networks of Telefonica and others in one fell swoop. Well, in an even bigger fell swoop, French ADSL provider free has simply opened up the wifi networks for its customers with the latest version of its set-top box (the ‘freebox’), allowing them to roam on each others’ networks and make free phone calls.
FON was proud to go from zero to 100,000 access points (most of which were never even activated) in under a year.
But Free has gone from zero to 300,000 overnight.
Imagine if Telefonica, or France Telecom, or Verizon - companies with tens of millions of customers, were to follow the example of free….
I think all this highlights that operators still have a lot of leverage here to make things happen, and quickly, *if* they have the will to do it. For FON, this should be a clear warning that bypassing the operators to go directly to the people will be very difficult. To survive, they should be working directly with all the incumbent operators to help them ‘do a free’.
October 17, 2006 at 5:09 am
No me toques los cofones…
Yannick Laclau se hace eco hoy (en inglés) de una noticia (en francés, aquà teneis la casi ilegible traducción automática al español) que a uno de nuestros figuras favoritos no le debe haber sentado muy bien. Yannick más o menos viene a decir …
October 17, 2006 at 7:28 am
Fon: Estamos que lo regalamos….
Este parece ser el eslogan de Fon, por lo que he podido leer en menéame (y luego confirmado en el propio blog de Martin Varsavsky, a todos los usuarios de menéame se les regalará una fonera para que puedan probarla, eso sÃ, enviando un mensaje electrón…
October 17, 2006 at 8:03 am
[...] Our friend, Yannick Laclau thinks that in one swoop, FON is squashed. “I think all this highlights that operators still have a lot of leverage here to make things happen, and quickly, if they have the will to do it,” he writes. Or perhaps, this means FoN could become a quick way for an incumbent to do roll out their own network. Not taking sides, just taking into account Martin Varsavsky’s ability to flip companies. [...]
October 17, 2006 at 9:17 am
J’ai parlé de cela déjà le 22 avril 2006 en étant certain que les opérateurs Telco allaient offrir le wifi gratuitement à leur abonnés.
http://www.pascalrossini.com/wordpress/?p=255
October 18, 2006 at 12:26 am
Well, as the founder of Fon I can say that while the move on Free´s part is cool we already have a deal with Neuf to do the same and with Free customers will be able to roam in France and with Neuf who has as many installs in France as Free they will be able to roam the world. And yes the French love France (so do I and my wife is French) but they certainly love to roam the world.
October 18, 2006 at 7:27 am
French ISP Free opens up subscribers’ WiFi to each other, adds handsets…
Filed under: Networking In what appears to be a potentially disruptive move, French ISP Free has just…
October 18, 2006 at 9:19 am
It actually only opened up the network to the phones they sell. If you hope to use any other phone, even wifi-enabled, or a laptop, you won’t be able to connect to that huge network. So for now, this doesn’t compete with FON at all.
October 18, 2006 at 11:40 am
yannack’s comment is a good one: Free’s system is closed, so in that respect it is worse for consumers than what Fon is trying to achieve.
pascal, I also feel this is inevitable. But thinking further about it, this could be a big opportunity for FON for the following reason:
Free moved so quickly because they own and build their own set-top boxes. This is not usually the case with other operators. So for them to get the software right to apply the same model to their own customers will be much more difficult…and that’s where Fon can be a valuable partner.
Martin: the operators will be your salvation if Fon is to succeed. It’ll be tough to get 10 million people to install a router when they already get one from the operator. I hope you release some stats on take up when your deal with Neuf launches.
October 18, 2006 at 1:36 pm
I agree with you Yannick, This brings me to imagine that FON would greatly benefit from supplying its solution as a white label to the telcos, with an undeniable advantage: its internationalisation.
October 18, 2006 at 5:45 pm
[...] Yannick “For a while FON bragged how it was able to surpass the wifi networks of Telefonica and others in one fell swoop. Well, in an even bigger fell swoop, French ADSL provider free has simply opened up the wifi networks for its customers with the latest version of its set-top box (the ‘freebox’), allowing them to roam on each others’ networks and make free phone calls” [...]
October 25, 2006 at 5:35 pm
[...] Read - GigaOmRead - Yannick LaclauRead - Net Economie [...]
November 14, 2006 at 4:10 pm
[...] Esto no es más que el inicio de lo realmente viene: los grandes proveedores crearán sus redes wifi, con infraestructura propia y también generada gracias a sus clientes. Un problema para FON, como bien resume Yannick Laclau: “Imagine if Telefonica, or France Telecom, or Verizon - companies with tens of millions of customers, were to follow the example of Free…” [...]