Comments on: FON squashed overnight…

By: Ansaria.com » Blog Archive » Ya llega el WiFi gratis

Ansaria.com » Blog Archive » Ya llega el WiFi gratis — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:10:10 +0000

[...] Esto no es m�s que el inicio de lo realmente viene: los grandes proveedores crear�n sus redes wifi, con infraestructura propia y tambi�n 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�” [...]

By: French ISP Free opens up subscribers’ WiFi to each other, adds handsets » JenIT

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 16:35:35 +0000

[...] Read – GigaOmRead – Yannick LaclauRead – Net Economie [...]

By: French provider launches one hundred thousand hotspots at Roam4free

French provider launches one hundred thousand hotspots at Roam4free — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:45:04 +0000

[...] 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” [...]

By: Pascal

Pascal — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:36:45 +0000

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.

By: yannick

yannick — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:40:35 +0000

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.

By: yannack

yannack — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:19:05 +0000

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.

By: Tech Gadgets

Tech Gadgets — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 06:27:01 +0000

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…

By: martin varsavsky

martin varsavsky — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:26:38 +0000

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.